Trial by Fire and the Battle Across Time
by NetRaptor
Summary: Trial by Fire: Sonic wakes up with half his memory missing. And the world seems to be turned on its head. In the second half, Slasher is dumped into the Sonic Underground universe. Battle Across Time: A coninuation of the Sonic Underground aspect of the s
1. Trial by Fire

Trial By Fire  
by K. M. Hollar  
_______________________________________________________________________  
Sonic and all related characters copyrighted by Sega or Archie Comics.   
Sonic Underground copyrighted by DiC. Used without permission.   
Packbell copyrighted by Bookshire Draftwood, used without permission.   
Slasher and all other fan characters copyrighted by K. M. Hollar.   
Spark copyrighted by Ace Castle. Used with permission. Sonotropolis is   
not based in any way on the Sonitropolis of "A Sorcerer, a Demon and   
Emeralds", by Kefka.  
_______________________________________________________________________  
  
One day Sonic awoke in the woods with half his memory missing.  
The hedgehog sat up and looked around, blinking. What was he   
doing out here? The trees stood around him, their brilliant green   
leaves rustling in the breeze. Birds sang all around. The sun glancing   
through the canopy was warm on his face and arms.  
But it was his own mind that troubled Sonic. He couldn't remember   
why he was here, nor where he was. It was as if half his mind had been   
wiped clean as a slate. Amnesia? In a slight panic he searched his   
mind for other memories and with relief found them intact. He was   
Sonic Hedgehog of the Knothole Freedom Fighters. He shuffled his   
memories like cards, searching for the most recent thing he could   
remember. The war, the chao, Leviathan. He remembered waving goodbye   
to the chao, and planning a missions afterwards ... there the   
emptiness began.  
His head felt strange. Sonic lifted a hand and to his surprise   
discovered a long cut across his forehead. He had been asleep so long   
it had stopped bleeding. He ran an exploratory hand over his spines   
and found them matted with dried blood. How had he cut his head, and   
how long had he been unconscious? He searched himself for a clue. He   
was wearing a digital wristwatch that still worked, but he lacked   
both his silver whistle and his emerald belt. However, he was wearing   
a utility belt covered in pouches and pockets. He went through it   
and found a fair supply of dried fruit and jerky. In one tiny pocket   
he found a gold ring with a round, clear stone set in it. He turned   
it this way and that, wondering what it was and why he had it. Had   
he proposed to Sally in that gap he couldn't remember? He tucked it back   
into is pocket and stood up, brushing off the leaves that clung to his   
fur.  
He checked his watch for the date and received his first rude   
shock. It was November 29th. But the woods around him looked like   
early summer, and the sun was too warm. Either the world was wrong or   
his watch was. This had to be a joke. But why was his head cut? He   
needed to wash the blood out of his hair, he knew he must look a   
fright. "I'll go home," he muttered aloud. "Somebody'll know what   
happened to me."  
The blue hedgehog set out at a fast walk eastward. He couldn't   
be far from Knothole. He hoped.  
After a few minutes he came upon a stream. He knelt and drank,   
then splashed water over his face and hair. He scrubbed and soaked   
until he was certain he had washed off the blood, then shook the water   
out of his fur. Feeling better, he crossed the stream and walked on.  
He had not walked five minutes before he came to a paved road.   
He stepped onto it and looked both ways, confused. Where had this road   
come from? There were no roads in the Great Forest. Had he been in a   
teleporter accident? Was he in his proper time at all? The latter   
prospect sickened him. If he was in a different time there was no   
telling what might happen. "I wish I could remember," he muttered, and   
set off along the road. He would try to locate Robotropolis. It was a   
definite landmark, and he could find Knothole in relation to it.  
The sun was pleasant on his head, and the woods were quiet as   
far as his ears could reach. It was almost noon. Sonic's eyes roamed   
his surroundings as he walked, a feeling of foreboding weighing on him.   
Maybe he was dreaming. He touched his cut. It sure stung like real   
life. If he was dreaming, why was he carrying food with him? Spooked,   
he broke into his trademark run and galloped down the road. He wanted   
to see something familiar--anything!  
He met no cars, which was fortunate, for he was tearing along at   
two hundred miles an hour. It wasn't long before he broke free of the   
woods and screeched to a halt on the shoulder, where the earth was   
soft. Panting, he glanced at a nearby sign, then gazed into the shallow   
valley beyond.  
The sign said "Sonotropolis City Limit", and beyond it lay   
Robotropolis in all its polluted grandeur.  
Sonic leaned against the sign for support. "C'mon hedgehog,   
wake up," he said, shaking his head. "This isn't real. You're having a   
dream, a very intense dream." He looked down at the dismal cityscape   
with its aura of brown smog. "Nights, come wake me up!" He waited,   
but Nights did not appear.  
No, this was reality. Somehow Sonic knew. Perhaps it was the   
woody scent of the sign post, or the breathing of the woods, or a   
lizard sunning itself on a nearby boulder. This was real. But   
Sonotropolis? Maybe he was in another part of the world. Yeah, that was   
it, he must be down south somewhere, which would explain the   
unseasonable weather. Robotropolis wasn't the only city with pollution.   
Feeling a little soothed, he trotted down the hill toward the city,   
ignoring a deeper sense that something was very, very wrong.  
He came to the junk heaps that ringed the city. At least that   
was familiar. Sonic kept going, desperate to see something he knew,   
or see someone who could tell him where he was.  
He reached the point where the trash heaps ended and the   
business district began. There were people. Real people, not robots.   
He moved to the sidewalk to avoid the light traffic and stopped the   
first person he met, a skinny weasel. "Excuse me," said Sonic.  
To his surprise, the weasel bowed. "Hello, I apologize, I didn't   
notice you."  
"Uh, yeah, whatever," said Sonic in confusion. "Could you, uh,   
tell me where I am?"  
"Sonotropolis, the capital city," said the weasel, bowing again.  
"He's afraid of me," Sonic thought. "Uh, thanks mister," he said   
aloud. "You can, you know, go about your business." The weasel bowed   
yet again and hurried away.  
"This is weird," Sonic muttered. Everyone who passed took off   
their hats or bowed to him, and many more rushed by, hoping to avoid   
his notice. "This is bizarre!" Sonic thought. The feeling of something   
amiss was returning. He was in this weird place and he couldn't   
remember how he arrived there. His watch was six months off. His head   
was gnashed, but he was carrying food like for a journey. And then   
there was that ring. He wished he could remember something.  
He pulled out a strip of jerky and chewed it as he walked   
along. The salt tasted good. He didn't know when he had last eaten,   
but he didn't feel hungry, so it must have been recently.  
He was standing at an intersection, wondering which way to go   
and licking his fingers, when a familiar sound reached him through   
the street noise. A jet engine. He sorted through the cars and people   
with the practiced eye of a Freedom Fighter, and spotted Metal Sonic.   
The blue robot was flying above the street like a large insect, red   
eyes fixed on Sonic, hands dangling, fingers curled into claws.   
Sonic ran along the sidewalk, ducking past curious citizens. Metal   
Sonic flew unobstructed over the street, engines whining to a higher   
pitch as he accelerated. Sonic glanced at him over his shoulder, the   
familiarity of the chase wiping away his fear. Mecha hadn't changed.   
Sonic was a couple hundred miles from home, that was all.  
He ducked through an alley, emerged on the other side and   
crossed the street, pelted down the sidewalk and swerved into   
another alley. Metal Sonic's engines were fainter, but there was no   
use hiding; Mecha would spot him on radar.  
By the time he lost the robot, Sonic had blundered into the   
dismal suburbs and was surrounded by rotting houses and yards. "Shoot,   
lost again," the hedgehog muttered, pulling out another strip of   
jerky. This time the salt made him thirsty. "I need a map or something,"   
he said, pausing and looking at the neighborhood.  
He wandered for two hours, wondering where Mecha had vanished to.   
He found a rusty drinking fountain and slaked his thirst, refusing to   
wonder if the water table were polluted. Near one o' clock he found   
his way into a place where the buildings appeared cared for. A   
particular skyscraper caught his attention; a tall white one with a   
curious design. Probably the Chamber of Commerce or something similar.   
They could tell him where he was.  
He stepped into the cool lobby and inhaled the aroma of carpet   
and air freshener. It was a long room with chairs along the walls, and   
a desk at the far end. Behind it were the ears of a secretary.  
"Excuse me."  
The secretary was a rabbit with long ears. She was working at a   
computer, but turned when he spoke and gave him her bored attention.  
"Could you give me a road map?" Sonic inquired. The rabbit didn't   
answer. She was staring at him as if she had seen a ghost, and one of   
her manicured hands slithered toward the phone.  
"I'll take that as a no," Sonic said. He forced a smile he hoped   
wasn't too stiff and backed toward the door. "I think I'll be going now."  
"If you'll wait a moment, sir, I'll call someone to help you."   
Her voice was so calm Sonic wondered if he had imagined the shock on   
her face.   
He folded his arms, shifted his weight to one foot and waited.   
"Really, I just want a map," he told her. She flashed her eyes at him   
and whispered into the phone. Sonic's spines prickled. Something was   
going on.  
Before he could take a step toward the door, a door near the desk   
opened, and Sally stepped into the room. She was wearing a purple vest   
and boots, which Sonic found odd, as she usually wore blue. "Sal!" he   
exclaimed in surprise. "Boy, am I glad to see you!" He would have   
mentioned his memory loss, but the look on her face struck him dumb;   
it was the rawest hatred he had ever witnessed.  
"Are you?" she said, pacing toward him.  
Sonic felt he were being stalked by a tigress and backed away.   
"Uh, Sally, is everything cool?"  
Her lips tightened into a smile, but her cold eyes did not change.   
"Come with me, Sonic, and we'll get you some help." Her hand closed on   
his arm like iron claws and she led him toward the inner door. Sonic   
walked with her, astonished at her strength.  
Once the door closed behind them, Sally dropped all semblance of   
cordiality and strode down the hall, teeth bared, dragging Sonic. "Who   
are you?" she barked.  
"I'm Sonic, Sal," said Sonic.  
She slapped his face. "Don't ever call me Sal. You're not Sonic.   
Tell me your name."  
"I'm Sonic, I told you!" Sonic argued, stinging from her slap,   
but beginning to fear her. This was not the Sally he knew. "Sonic   
Hedgehog."  
The squirrel looked at him as if he were long-dead roadkill.   
"We'll get the truth out of you yet."  
By this time they had reached a pair of elevator doors at the   
end of the hall. Sally opened them, wrenched Sonic inside, and pressed   
a button for the nineteenth floor.  
The ride was long and slow. Sally did not relax her grip on   
Sonic's arm, although he was losing the feeling in his fingertips. He   
ventured to speak to her twice: once to ask where they were going and   
once to ask why she was wearing purple. She told him to shut up each   
time. Sonic was certain he could overpower her and escape, but the   
Sally he knew would carry a concealed pistol in these situations.  
The elevator doors opened with a cheerful 'ting', and Sally led   
him into a ritzy apartment. Sonic didn't have time to look around.   
Sally guided him across the room, through a door, and into an office.  
The office's rear wall had floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking   
the city, and behind a king-sized desk was a tall swivel chair,   
currently with its back to the room. Sonic had a feeling he wasn't   
going to like the occupant of that chair.  
Sally released his arm like she was throwing away a dead rat.   
As he rubbed life back into it, she said, "I have brought the hedgehog,   
sir."  
The chair slowly swivelled about, and Sonic was reminded of an   
opening crypt. For a second he took in the small figure in the chair; a   
blue hedgehog with long spines and green eyes. Then a sense of nightmare   
hit him.   
It was another Sonic.   
The other Sonic stared at him, frowning, eyes sweeping him from   
head to toe. Presently he rose, stepped around the desk and approached   
the visitor for a closer look.  
"Amazing resemblance," said the strange Sonic in Sonic's voice.   
"What are you, my twin?"  
"I don't think so," said Sonic. "I don't have a twin."  
"Neither do I," said the strange Sonic. "Where are you from?"  
"I'm a Freedom Fighter from Knothole."  
The strange Sonic's mood changed from interest to anger.   
"You're with the rebels, then. I should have known. Slasher, come   
here."  
Sonic's heart gave a leap at the name, but it sank at once.   
Slasher rose into view from her bed behind the desk. Her eyes were   
cold and wild, as if she had stepped out of the jungle five minutes   
before. But her wings were the biggest shock. They were not feathered--  
they were black and leathery, like a bat's. She prowled to the strange   
hedgehog's side, and he stroked her head as if she were a cat. It   
turned Sonic's stomach to see her degraded to the level of a dumb   
animal.  
The other hedgehog looked Sonic in the eye. "Slasher, kill him."  
Slasher moved fast, but Sonic moved faster. The thick window   
glass exploded outward under his panicked spindash, and then he was   
freefalling from the nineteenth floor. Fortunately he knew how to regain   
his feet against the wall and run, moving so fast he defied gravity.   
Stopping was tricky, but Sonic managed it by spiraling around the   
building until he was low enough to leap off and tear away on the   
ground.  
He didn't allow himself to think about what he had seen until he   
was a safe distance from the skyscraper. He had just seen Sally,   
Slasher and himself. The thought staggered him. Was he in the future?   
But that made no sense, because he had been sure the other Sonic was   
the same age he was. He wasn't certain how he knew, but he knew it as   
surely as the other Sonic had known it about him. What if it was a   
different dimension?  
He slowed to a walk as the woods came into view. The sight of   
the trees calmed him, and suddenly he wanted to wander in the forest   
forever and never lay eyes on Sonotropolis again.  
A jet engine.  
He bolted for the treeline without bothering to look for Metal   
Sonic. He would be safe if he could reach the woods. The scream of the   
engine rose to a whistle, and Sonic sprinted up the hill. Almost   
there--another hundred feet--another fifty--  
Something red flashed into his range of vision. He swerved, but   
the object swerved with him, and a second later he was knocked off   
his feet by a dizzying blow. Sonic rolled to a stop and landed on his   
hands and knees, the world revolving with bright alien colors.   
Something hot trickled down his face.  
The unmistakable click of a rifle bolt being drawn back pierced   
his senses. Sonic looked up, blinking the blood out of his eyes.   
Standing over him with a stun rifle in his fist was Robo Knux, the   
echidna mecha bot. His eyes shimmered with green electronic triumph.   
A moment later Metal Sonic landed nearby, a sleek, lightly built   
hedgehog robot, and looked down at Sonic with cool pleasure. It   
occurred to Sonic that he had never seen them looking so clean and   
polished.  
"Stand up," said Robo Knux. "If you try to escape, you won't   
wake up for a long, long time."  
Sonic stood up, trying to watch both of them at once. He knew   
these robots were ruthless. "Are you going to kill me?"  
Mecha and Robo Knux glanced at each other, and Mecha said, "Not   
for a while. But if you try to escape, then ..."  
They marched him into the forest, which was a surprise, as Sonic   
assumed they lived in the city. No one spoke for the duration of their   
journey, but he found himself shocked. Mecha and Robo Knux had always   
fought like cocks before, but now they worked as a team, to the point   
of helping each other along through the trackless woods. Once, when   
Sonic stumbled, Metal Sonic helped him up without a word. The maniacal   
hatred was gone. The robots were wary of him, but they didn't hate him   
in particular.  
Sonic was pondering this and nibbling at the corners of the   
blank curtain in his mind when a voice called, "Halt! Who goes   
there?"   
Sonic looked around, but saw no one.  
"The Metallix," said Metal Sonic, "and a prisoner."  
"Proceed, I'll radio ahead," said the invisible sentry. By the   
time Sonic thought to check the treetops, the elevated platform was   
out of sight behind them.  
They came to a place where the trees drew into a solid wall   
ahead of them. "Open," said Robo Knux. The trees wavered and   
vanished like a hologram, and there was Knothole village.  
The robots marched him through, pretending to ignore the people   
who waved to them. Sonic felt odd--all glances that came his way were   
cold as ice.  
He was led to a large building he thought was the community   
hut, but when the door opened, he received a horrible shock. There   
stood the cyborg velociraptor Leviathan, his red eyes glowing in his   
silver masked face. Sonic fell back against Robo Knux, who gripped his   
shoulders and steered him through the door. Leviathan stepped back to   
let them enter, his red eyes fixed on Sonic.  
"Here is the prisoner, sir," said Metal Sonic. Sonic tore his   
eyes away from Leviathan, and with another shock saw Robotnik, seated   
in a chair in the corner. He stood up at once and walked forward. He   
was sixty pounds lighter than the Robotnik Sonic knew, and had a   
full head of red hair. He was wearing the jeans and sweatshirt of an   
off-duty Freedom Fighter, and, Sonic thought to himself, looked more   
at home than he ever had in Robotropolis.  
"Well well," said the doctor, "it looks like you two have finally   
succeeded. Did he give you any trouble?" His eyes roamed the robots'   
hulls, looking for damage, Sonic guessed.  
"No," said Robo Knux. "He has been quite compliant today."  
"Odd behavior," came Leviathan's low, oily voice from the rear.   
Sonic's flesh crawled--Leviathan sounded like a Mobian.  
Robotnik nodded and looked at Sonic. "Bind him, Mecha bots.   
Your brother will aid me."  
It took Sonic a moment to remember that the cyber raptor was   
considered a Mecha bot, and when he looked around again, he was   
wearing electronic bindings on his wrists. Metal Sonic and Robo Knux   
departed, leaving Sonic with Robotnik and Leviathan.  
Sonic spoke first. "I'm not who you think I am."  
Robotnik raised an eyebrow. "Really. Who are you, then?"  
"I'm Sonic, but I'm not your Sonic." It sounded muddled as he   
said it. He tried again. "I mean, I'm a different Sonic. I think I'm   
in the wrong universe or something. But I met the Sonic here and I'm   
not him. Actually, I am him, but in a different Mobius." It still   
didn't make sense. Leviathan and Robotnik exchanged a glance, and   
Sonic's heart quailed.  
"How many drinks have you had today?" asked Robotnik.  
"I don't drink," Sonic replied. "And I'm not drunk, I'm   
perfectly sane." He watched the flicker of blue electricity between   
the bindings on his wrists. Maybe he WAS insane.  
"Why don't you let me ask the questions?" Robotnik asked,   
seating himself in his chair. Sonic nodded. Somehow he knew that   
this Robotnik wasn't evil, and he was flattening all hope of   
obtaining his help.  
"Now," said Robotnik, "the fact that you came quietly with the   
Metallix is reason to suspect you. Is your beast standing by for a   
raid?"  
"Beast?" Sonic asked, looking blank.  
"Slasher," said the doctor.  
Sonic thought of the Slasher he had met, of her wildness and   
her dragon-wings. "No," said Sonic. "Your Sonic told her to kill me.   
I was running from her when the mechas got me."  
Robotnik glanced at Leviathan, who bobbed his steel head.  
"Listen," said Sonic urgently, "I can tell you all sorts of   
stuff about my world! Like--" He searched his mind for something   
unique. "Like the Floating Island! Knuckles Echidna is the guardian.   
That's where the Master Emerald is. You have a piece of it in your   
collar," he said, turning to Leviathan. To his surprise, the robot   
backed away a step, lifting his hands to cover the green gem.  
Robotnik was watching him through narrowed eyes. "I don't know   
who writes your material. Knuckles, as you so glibly call the Guardian,   
lives on the Flying Fortress. He is the leader of the echidna clan.   
The only reason our resistance has not fallen is because you have not   
won their trust."  
Robotnik leaned forward, glaring into Sonic's eyes. "Answer me   
this, Hedgehog. What is Deep Sky?"  
Sonic stared back, mind racing. It sounded like a codeword, but   
it wasn't any of the codewords he knew. "I ... don't know," he said,   
hoping he didn't look too stupid.  
Again that glance and nod passed between Leviathan and   
Robotnik.  
"What are you doing?" Sonic asked. "Why do you keep looking at   
each other?"  
"Leviathan is our lie detector," Robotnik replied. "According   
to him you have been telling the truth."  
Sonic went limp with relief. "I thought you were going to tell   
him to eat me. But you've got to believe me! I'm not Sonic."  
"How did you get here, may I ask?" asked the doctor.  
Sonic shook his head. "I don't remember. I woke up this morning   
in your woods, and it's like my mind was wiped. I can't remember for   
like three weeks."  
"Selective amnesia," said Leviathan's creepy voice.  
"Yes," Robotnik agreed. "Probably has something to do with that   
cut on your head. Do you remember a portal of any kind?"  
Sonic shook his head, then looked at Robotnik. "What's Deep   
Sky?"  
Robotnik stood up, took a penknife from his pocket and pressed a   
button on Sonic's handcuffs. They switched off and opened. "Have a   
seat," he said, motioning to a nearby chair. Sonic obeyed, thankful   
to be free.  
"I am prepared to believe you are who you claim," said Robotnik,   
twirling his mustache with one finger. "This morning at dawn, our   
sensors detected an energy pulse not far from highway I-4. We feared   
the worst and dispatched the Metallix to investigate. They discovered   
nothing. I assume you had already left the area. I believe the energy   
pulse was a portal of some kind.  
"Now," Robotnik continued, looking Sonic in the eye, "that   
brings us to Operation Deep Sky. Dictator Sonic Hedgehog has had it   
under construction for some time, and it was only recently our   
intelligence breached his security. His plan is to launch a weapon   
into orbit--a solar weapon. This satellite would gather and store   
solar radiation, and at a command from the ground, fire it in a   
concentrated beam at a target."  
"An ion cannon," said Sonic.  
"Essentially," Robotnik replied. "Now, as it seems you will be   
staying with us for a while, you have the option of joining our cause."  
"You mean the Freedom Fighters?" Sonic asked, perking up. "That's   
what I am in my world! Sure! Could I pose as my evil twin?"  
Robotnik smiled for the first time since Sonic had seen him.   
"That may certainly be a mission idea. At least, until we can find   
a way to send you home."  
  
* * *  
  
A waiting period followed. Several undercover scouts went looking   
for the Sonic of their universe, and confirmed he was in his tower at   
the same time the other Sonic was under surveillance in Knothole.   
They indeed had two Sonics on their hands. A few tests were run on   
their visitor to make sure he was not a robot. Sonic had no robot   
parts, but his DNA was exactly the same as the Sonic who inhabited   
Sonotropolis. He was either a clone or the same Sonic from another   
dimension. If he was the latter, he was a valuable tool for future   
missions. And the first thing to do was wait for his cut head to heal.  
Sonic found life in an alternate dimension pleasant, although not   
without its surprises. The first thing that startled him was when Robo   
Knux offered to let him stay in the robots' hut. Robotnik and Leviathan,   
who appeared to run things, thought this was a good idea. The first   
night, Sonic found himself climbing onto a cot as Robo Knux and Metal   
Sonic plugged into a generator for overnight recharging. They bade   
him goodnight and switched off. Sonic lay in the darkness for a long   
time, listening to the throb of the generator and watching the dark   
shapes against the wall.  
He was awakened the next morning by a gentle shake. He looked   
up into the red eyes of Metal Sonic, and nearly had a heart attack.  
"Sorry," said Mecha kindly. "I apologize, you are not accustomed   
to us. It is time to activate for the day."  
It had been some time before Sonic's panicked heart rate   
returned to normal.  
Another thing he found creepy were the other Freedom Fighters.   
There was Snively, Robotnik's nephew, who was the resident computer   
whiz.  
There were Kardot and Packbell, the androids. Sonic's spines   
stood up whenever he saw them. Kardot was a deep brown anteater with   
gorgeous looks, but dressed modestly and was rather shy. It was her   
efforts that kept the Metallix, as they called themselves, in top   
condition. Packbell was a human to all appearances, tall and severe   
looking, smartly dressed. He planned tactical assaults on   
Sonotropolis.  
The list went on. Every nasty person Sonic knew in his world   
were Freedom Fighters here. It made him wonder about his friends.   
If his alter ego was bent on evil, where was Tails? Why did Knuckles   
live on a flying fortress instead of a Floating Island?  
He scrapped his supply belt, first digging through it for any   
clue as to his location. He came upon the ring again. He held it up   
and watched the light play on the stone. It was white in some lights,   
but flashed red or blue fire in others. "A moonstone," he thought.   
The name had escaped from behind the blank curtain in his mind.   
With it came the feeling that the ring was critically important.   
He slid it onto his ring finger, then pulled his glove over it. There.   
He would have to lose his glove before he could lose the ring.  
  
* * *  
  
One day, after Sonic had lived in alter-Knothole for a week, Dr.   
Robotnik took him for a walk.  
"I want you to show me where you awoke," said the doctor,   
leading the way out of the village.  
"Well," said Sonic, "first I found a stream, then I came to a   
highway."  
"That could be Mina Creek," said Robotnik, looking southward. "I   
know where that is, come with me."  
The two walked in silence. Sonic twiddled his ring under his   
glove and watched his former enemy. Robotnik was wearing sneakers and   
a straw hat--something Sonic had never imagined him doing--and seemed   
quite at home in the forest. "Funny how he trusts me," Sonic thought.   
"My Robotnik wouldn't trust me as far as he could throw me. This is   
weird."  
Robotnik broke the silence. "Sonic, there's something I need to   
ask you."  
Sonic shrugged. "Fire away."  
"Are Kardot and Leviathan ... alive ... in your world?"  
Sonic shook his head. "Nope. We took out Leviathan's stone. One   
of my friends killed Kardot himself, although we think our Robo Knux   
picked up her pieces. Why?"  
"How long ago was this?"  
"A month or two, I guess. I don't remember."  
Robotnik looked troubled and stroked his mustache. "I was afraid   
of that."  
"Why?"  
The doctor looked down at the hedgehog. "I've studied quantum   
theory in my time, and there is an enigma before us. When someone dies   
in your world, they die here, and visa versa. Two months ago, Leviathan   
and Kardot broke down for no apparent reason. I repaired them both, but   
that is because they are robots. This is only a theory, of course."  
Sonic was looking at his companion so hard he nearly tripped over   
a fallen branch. "You're saying that ... what are you saying?"  
"I'm saying," said Robotnik gravely, "that this world is a mirror   
of your own. If a person dies in one world, they die in the other. You   
are the same Sonic as our enemy."  
Sonic blanched. "But why am I evil here? What went wrong?"  
"I'm not sure," said Robotnik, ducking under a low hanging limb.   
"I think that every decision you have made in your life, your mirror   
image has made the opposite."  
Sonic thought of some of the choices he had made over the years,   
and mentally chose the reverse. His hypothetical life quickly swept in   
another direction. He shivered. "What about the chaos emeralds?" he   
asked.  
Robotnik gave him a sharp glance. "They belong to the monster   
of the sea, Perfect Chaos."  
Sonic nodded in relief. "At least I don't have to deal with   
Super Sonic. So, if I hurt anybody here, it will hurt my friends in my   
world?"  
"Shh," said Robotnik, holding up a hand. "Listen."  
They had reached the edge of the highway. Sonic listened for   
cars. The road was empty as far as he could see, and the only sound   
was the chirping of birds. "I think it's clear," he whispered.  
Robotnik laid a hand on his arm. "No. Wait. Hear it?"  
Again Sonic strained his ears. "What am I listening for?"  
In response Robotnik pulled him into the bushes and motioned   
for him to keep quiet.  
Sound burst upon their eardrums--the raucous roar of motorcycle   
engines. Sonic lifted his head and saw a three-wheeled cycle roar   
past, its rear end a mass of exhaust pipes, its ride a flash of orange   
fur and goggles. Behind the first bike came six or seven more, Sonic   
guessed, for they passed too quickly to count.  
The noise faded into the distance, leaving a haze of exhaust   
hanging on the air. "That was the Million Miles gang," said Robotnik.   
"They travel this highway all the time. Let's cross."  
They dashed across the hot pavement and entered the cool woods   
on the far side. Moments later they located the stream, and turned   
west. Sonic scanned the trees and ground, looking for landmarks.   
"Here," he said, stopping. "I think this is it. I woke up right here."   
He nudged the dirt with his toe.  
"Okay, stay there," said Robotnik. "I must make some   
observations."  
Sonic sat down and rested his head on his knees. The sight of   
the motorcycle gang had left him with a vague dread. Now he thought   
about it and toyed with the memory. Orange fur, the Million Miles gang.   
The connection was obvious, and despair hit him like a punch in the   
gut. Tails was the leader of a gang. That made three. Sonic was an   
evil dictator, Tails was a thug, and Knuckles was a clan leader.   
Slasher was a monster, and Sally hated his guts. What else would he   
discover here?  
Robotnik interrupted his thoughts as he returned, looking   
thoughtful. "Time to go back, Sonic," he said. Sonic jumped up and the   
two retraced their steps. "I found evidence of the portal," said the   
doctor. "As far as I can tell it produced no more radiation than a   
teleporter beam, but it was open for a long period. I think I could   
duplicate such a portal, but I don't know how to set it. You must   
have arrived here by accident."  
Sonic nodded, feeling tired. Why were these things so difficult?  
Robotnik peered at him. "Feeling tired?"  
"Oh no, I'm fine," said Sonic.  
"Good," said Robotnik "There is a mission planned for this   
afternoon, and I want you to go."  
Sonic brightened at once. "Really? Cool!"  
  
* * *  
  
Slasher perched on the topmost pinnacle of the Control Tower,   
her feet curled around a little steel knob. She balanced perfectly, her   
long tail drooping, wings held open above her back. Her yellow-green   
eyes were fixed on the creature in the parking lot, hundreds of feet   
below. The griffin was seated on its lion-haunches, staring back. The   
two cordially hated each other, but there would be no fighting today.   
The Guardian echidna was inside the tower, talking with Sonic on   
political business. Slasher knew quite well what that business was.   
Sonic wanted the Flying Fortress's alliance, so he could access their   
Palace and the power gems within. Neither would agree to the other's   
terms. Back and forth they went with never a fair settlement. Slasher   
bared her teeth at his griffin, who snapped his beak in return.  
The two were so busy watching each other, neither noticed a   
hoverbike roar by. On it were two hedgehogs; a live one and a robot   
one. They were hiding in plain sight, and no one gave them a second   
thought.  
Sonic was wearing a trenchcoat, a hat and dark glasses. Metal   
Sonic was wearing a set of sweats, which hung oddly loose on his   
metal frame, and sunglasses. Sonic had cracked up when he had seen   
Mecha's disguise, but he had to admit it worked. Mecha didn't look   
like a robot anymore.  
They were bound for the rear of the Control Tower, intending to   
break in and steal information on the satellite launch. Slasher was   
up on the tower, but she wasn't paying attention to them. So far, so   
good. Sonic parked the bike, and the two walked to the back doors.   
"Let me handle this," he said to Mecha. "I'm an old pro."  
"Affirmative," said Mecha, who didn't care one way or the other.  
Sonic opened the rear door and entered, Mecha at his elbow. He   
was in control. He had walked bold-faced into Robotropolis this way,   
and knew how it was pulled off. The room they entered was a dark,   
square room stuffed with filing cabinets. Mecha began scanning the   
labels on the drawers for a category match, while Sonic stepped   
through the interior door.  
There was a dog in the next room, working in a cubicle. He   
looked up as Sonic entered. "Who are you?" he barked.  
"Relax," said Sonic, pulling out an ID card and flashing it   
at him. "Master Sonic hired extra security today. Doesn't want   
anything to happen to his guest."  
The dog shrugged and returned to his work. Sonic chuckled to   
himself. His evil self was as spontaneous as he was, and the staff of   
his tower was used to it.  
He walked back into the room with the filing cabinets to find   
Mecha scanning a sheaf of papers as fast as he could rifle through   
them. "Bingo," droned Mecha without looking up. A second later he   
finished and returned the papers to their file. "Let us depart."  
The two stepped outside to find Slasher examining their bike.   
"Who are you?" she purred, teeth flashing in a malicious grin. Sonic   
felt Mecha glance at him for a plan. Sonic could bluff a secretary,   
but he couldn't bluff Slasher, even the evil Slasher. His mouth went   
dry.  
Mecha guessed there was a problem. He stepped forward and waved   
a steel hand. "Get away from our craft, beast."  
The velociraptor curled her claws around the handlebars and   
grinned.  
"I warned you," said Mecha.  
With that, the hoverbike exploded.  
Slasher was blown into the wall, where she slumped to the   
pavement, stunned. Metal Sonic ripped off his disguise and fired up   
his jets. "Run, Sonic," he commanded. "Rendezvous at the forest. Run!"   
He rocketed skyward.  
Sonic hesitated a fraction of a second, looking at the burning   
wreckage of the bike and Slasher's crumpled form, wondering if the   
good Slasher had fallen over in pain, then bolted, shucking his   
disguise as he went.  
It was more important that Metal Sonic escape, Sonic thought.   
Mecha was carrying the information they needed. Sonic circled the   
tower at a lope, setting himself up as a distraction. The parking lot   
was empty. He wondered where his evil self was and had a sneaking   
desire to see him again. What fun, a mission in the anti-verse!  
Sonic heard a sound like a kite rattling in the wind. The next   
second knives drove into his back, and he hit the asphalt with a grunt.   
A huge shadow fell over him, rough, scaly hands curled around his arms,   
and he was yanked upwards.  
Sonic's head was driven against his chest by the speed of his   
ascent, and all he could do was watch the street fall away. Then the   
force leveled off, and he could lift his head. His arms were clenched   
in two huge, yellow, scaly feet. The black talons on the ends of the   
toes were a foot long. He followed the yellow legs up with his eyes.   
White feathers, a narrow head, a cruel, hooked beak, giant beating   
wings. He looked over his shoulder and saw the tawny feline   
hindquarters, and leather straps looped around its belly. A griffin.   
The only griffin he had ever seen had been Elleno, his sister's chao,   
and a chao griffin was not a real griffin. He tried to see what the   
leather straps fastened to, but the claws on his arms blocked his   
view. Probably a saddle. "Please, don't let it be the evil Sonic,"   
he thought it desperation. He wondered if he could break free, then   
looked at the city, far below his red sneakers. Better not try it.  
The beast's flight was swift, and Sonotropolis fell behind them.   
They were bound for the ocean. A slow dread formed in Sonic's heart.   
"Knuckles," he thought in horror. "I'm doomed!" He drooped in the   
griffin's claws. They were curled so tightly he was losing the feeling   
in his hands, and his shoulders were aching. If Knuckles was the   
leader of the echidna clan, who were warriors ... his heart sank still   
further. He would be killed, and he must not harm the evil Knuckles at   
all costs, or the good Knuckles, his friend, would suffer.  
Sonic watched the ocean pass beneath his dangling feet,   
depression settling on his spirit. There was no sound but the steady   
whoosh of his captor's wings, and the creak of his own shoulder   
joints. What if there was no rider, and he was being carried off for   
food? Somehow that was a more cheerful thought than dealing with   
echidnas. At least he might have a chance to escape. A thought came to   
him. Something in the sense of this world being dangerous, but he   
could leave any time. His memory was returning! Oh, if only it would   
before he got killed ...  
A speck appeared on the horizon. Sonic squinted. Probably the   
Floating Island. No, the Flying Fortress, he reminded himself. What   
in the world would it look like? He couldn't imagine an echidna-built   
craft the size of the island.  
They drew nearer. The speck grew into a floating-island shape   
that was similar to the one Sonic knew. The only odd thing he could   
make out was that the topmost mountain peak was sending off a trailing   
column of smoke. Maybe it was an active volcano.  
It was not until they had flown into the island's interior and   
circled the mountain range that Sonic saw what had changed. The   
mountains were not made of earth and stone. They were made of iron.   
Great plates of hammered iron, rusted red from years of exposure. It   
gave Sonic a queer feeling. What was under that metal? A gigantic   
fortress? Of course, that had to be what the name meant.  
The griffin swooped downward with a lurch that turned the   
hedgehog's stomach. For a wild second he thought they were going to   
crash into the treetops. They pulled up so sharply his head snapped   
back in whiplash, and the claws at last uncurled.  
Sonic dropped three feet to a grassy strip where he sat for a   
moment, incapable of lifting his aching arms. The griffin landed a few   
feet beyond him and folded its bronze wings. It was as big as an   
elephant. Lashed about its girth was a leather saddle, and in it was   
Knuckles.  
The echidna vaulted from his steed, walked to its head and   
removed the bridle. The beast made a chirping sound, then stretched   
its stiff forepaws like a vast cat. Only then did Knuckles turn and   
look at his prisoner.  
The echidna wore white face paint, golden rings in his   
dreadlocks, and a shimmering blue stone on a chain around his neck.   
On his hands were shovelclaws like his alter ego's, but longer and   
razor sharp. His face was set in a frown, as if he were incapable of   
smiling.  
"Get up," barked the echidna. Sonic did as he was told. His   
legs were coming back to life, but his arms would not lift past waist   
height. "You know," said the hedgehog, "you look better without all   
that makeup."  
"You have the tongue of your duplicate," replied Knuckles   
without moving. "I will remove it if it troubles me."  
Sonic looked the echidna in the eye for a moment. Maybe it wasn't   
a good idea to toss around insults--he had forgotten how angry they   
made Knuckles. "Why'd you kidnap me?" he asked, flexing his tingling   
fingers.  
Knuckles bared his teeth in a scornful sneer. "Fun." He turned   
with a swish of dreadlocks. "Come with me."  
Sonic stayed put. "What if I don't?"  
"The torris will get you," replied the echidna without looking   
back.  
Sonic looked at the griffin, who fixed an orange eye on him. Was   
'torris' the echidna word for 'griffin'? He followed Knuckles, and was   
dismayed the hear the griffin pad after them. He hoped Metal Sonic   
had made it back to Knothole. Maybe they would notice when Sonic didn't   
come back.  
Knuckles led him to a place in the trees where there was a  
metal door in the grass, like a manhole. The echidna hauled it open   
with ease, although it must have weighed a hundred pounds. The hole   
beneath was pitch black and smelled sour. "Get in," Knuckles commanded   
Sonic. Then he called instructions to the griffin in a strange language.   
The giant creature paced away into the woods.  
Knuckles glanced at Sonic. "Didn't you hear me? Get in!" He   
motioned to the hole at their feet.  
"What is it, a death pit?" asked Sonic.  
"You have the wits of your duplicate, too," growled the echidna.   
He grabbed Sonic's arm with tremendous strength and pushed him into   
the hole.  
Sonic dropped six feet to a damp earthen floor. He moved aside   
a few steps, groping for the cold wall. Knuckles dropped in nearby,   
then jerked a chain attached to a ring in the wall. The door overhead   
slammed shut, plunging the two into total blackness. "Nice well,   
Knux," said Sonic.  
"You have the tact of your duplicate, as well," came the   
echidna's voice from the darkness. "You may call me the Guardian. If   
you ever call me Knux again, I'll beat your head in." He sounded   
cheerful at the thought.  
"Excuse me, mister Guardian," said Sonic sarcastically. "I'm   
Sonic's dupe, but that's Sir Sonic to you."  
"Hence the reason you're here," said the echidna, still more   
sarcastically. "Would you like to stay here all day or actually go   
inside?"  
"I'd rather stay here," said Sonic, forcing his limp arms to   
fold. "You're probably cannibals or something."  
"If we were, it would make no difference," said Knuckles's voice.   
"It's not considered cannibalism if you eat another species."  
"Funny."  
"Quite." Sonic felt Knuckles's hand and steel claw-strap close   
on his arm. It forced him forward into the darkness.  
They walked in silence for several minutes. Sonic kept his head   
bowed, imagining he would bash his head into something. But he didn't--  
the passage was as tall and smooth as the echidna clan could make it.   
Knuckles strode beside him, strong and sure of the way.  
They turned a corner and light streamed into the tunnel. It   
came from a torch on the wall that burned with hot white light.   
Beside it was a stone staircase. Sonic eyed the torch as they passed;   
it looked like the ones in Sandopolis, which would stay lit forever   
if one pulled the fuel cord at intervals.  
The staircase wound its way upward in landings. Sonic found it   
boring and tiring. A simple spindash would have saved him the legwork.  
After more walking and climbing than Sonic cared to think about,   
they came to a cavern that was like a chimney in the rock. Its walls   
were riddled with holes. Sonic stared up at it as Knuckles led him   
through, and realized the holes were windows. These were echidna   
apartments! Above him he could hear a murmur of voices and activity   
as the tenants went about their lives. Knuckles goaded him through a   
doorway on the far side of this cave and into another maze of passages.  
Now they met other echidnas, moving about on business. No one   
looked twice at Knuckles, but stared unabashed at the outlander with   
him. Sonic stared back, marvelling at how different they were. He had   
never seen so many hairstyles and shades of red. A female echidna   
passed him, stared for a moment like the rest, then went on her way.   
It was not until she was gone that Sonic exclaimed, "Hey, that was   
Zephyer!"  
"So?" said Knuckles.  
"In my world she's robotized," Sonic replied. "I wonder if she's   
any different."  
His captor guided him up a short flight of steps and to a door   
in an alcove. "Now," said Knuckles, waving a fist in his face, "do   
as you're told and tell the truth. If you lie I'll kill you." Sonic  
raised his eyebrows mockingly and nodded. Knuckles pushed open the door.  
The room beyond looked like the center of a geode. The walls and   
ceiling were domed, and studded with short, thick, geometric   
crystals. The floor was polished amethyst like purple ice--in places   
it faded down into fathomless pools. Blue torches burned along the   
walls, which caught and refracted their light. In the center of the   
room was a low dais, and seated in the middle was a small creature.  
A chao, Sonic thought in surprise. Knuckles led him to the foot   
of the dais, released him and extended a hand to the chao. It turned   
its round head and regarded them. It was the light blue of an average   
chao, but its head was elongated in back. Sonic wondered what it's   
large form was.  
"Grendel greets you," said the chao in a thin voice, looking at   
Sonic. "I am the chao of the echidnas, hatched by the torris, raised   
by fire. Answer my questions truthfully."  
It paused and looked at Sonic, who nodded. "I won't lie."  
The chao's eyes narrowed. It shifted positions on the cold seat   
and said, "What's your name?"  
"Sonic Hedgehog."  
"Are you a clone?"  
Sonic hesitated. He wasn't a clone in the sense of genetics.   
"No."  
"Where is your home?"  
Another hesitation. "Far away."  
The chao fixed him with a piercing stare. "Far like distance,   
or far like worlds?"  
"Dimensions. Worlds." Sonic waved a hand. "It's out there, but   
I can't get back."  
The chao looked at him a moment, then reached behind it, lifted   
a red gem into view, and popped it into its mouth.  
Knuckles moved back, and Sonic shielded his eyes. The chao had   
become a creature of brilliant flame, too bright to look at and too   
hot to stand near. "Are you certain that is the truth, Sonic?" it   
hissed in a crackly whisper.  
"Yes!" Sonic said, not daring to look at it. "I'm not lying,   
sheesh! I know it's weird, but it's true!"  
"Would you stake your life on it?" asked the chao, taking a step   
toward him.  
Sonic defiantly lowered his arms and faced it, eyes shut.   
"Yes. And don't kill me, it's awfully inconvenient." The flames   
crackled and licked about the creature for a moment, and Sonic   
smelled his fur scorching. Then the heat diminished and the glow died.   
Sonic opened his eyes and found himself facing a dark red echidna,   
cloaked in orange flames. The eyes glowed like yellow coals. "So you   
say," it purred. "You are Sonic from another dimension. I have known   
of other worlds for decades. The torris showed me a gate when I was a   
hatchling." The flame-creature looked at Knuckles. "You may do with   
him as you wish. He is more wholesome than our representative is. I   
believe you could trust him." With that, Grendel took the emerald from   
his mouth and shrank back into a small chao.  
  
* * *  
  
Metal Sonic sat beside Robotnik as the doctor worked on a laptop   
at a table. "I shouldn't have left him," lamented the robot, cradling   
his head in his hands. "I thought he would catch up with his speed, but   
he didn't ..."  
"It's not your fault," said Robo Knux from Robotnik's other side,   
where he was watching the computer screen. "If the idiot had to get   
himself killed, that's his affair."  
"But he's not dead," said Mecha. "His duplicate is alive. He   
must have been captured."  
Robotnik grunted, preoccupied with the data the robot had   
retrieved.  
"You would have seen something," said Robo Knux with a shrug.  
"But I did," said Mecha, looking up. "The Guardian's griffin   
left the area."  
"In that case, he's definitely dead," said Robo Knux, turning   
back to the computer. "You know what they do to prisoners. They   
sacrifice them to those gods of theirs."  
"Not if they intend to make use of them," retorted Mecha,   
clenching his metal hands. "I don't trust the Guardian. It would be   
just like him to come up with some wicked use for Sonic."  
"Eh? What?" said Robotnik, returning to earth at last. "What   
about the Guardian?"  
"I fear he kidnapped our visitor," replied Mecha.  
"You know him," said Robo Knux, jerking a thumb in Mecha's   
direction. "He's a world-class worrywart."  
"You're making good use of your new vernacular chip," commented  
the doctor.  
"It's totally groovy, dude," agreed Robo Knux.  
Metal Sonic looked at him in distaste. "If I had nerves, you   
would get on them. Doctor, I am afraid for Sonic's life."  
"Sonic will have to wait," said Robotnik, leaning an elbow on   
the table. "The satellite launch is tomorrow."  
The Metallix straightened. "When?" they asked at once.  
"Noon," replied their creator. "It entered the countdown   
sequence yesterday."  
"What pad?" asked Robo Knux in bewilderment. "I thought I   
patrolled them all!"  
Robotnik turned to the computer. "It's launching from a   
commercial pad just outside the city limits. It's using an experimental   
fuel supply, and our prudent Hedgehog ruler didn't want an explosion   
in one of his private pads."  
Robo Knux slumped in his chair. "I never check that one. What   
do we do?"  
"I'm turning this information over to Packbell and Snively,"   
replied Robotnik, inserting a disk into a slot on the computer's side.   
"We'll see what they give us."  
"But what about our Sonic?" asked Mecha, rising to his feet. "I   
feel responsible for his safety."  
Robotnik studied the robot's pointed face for a moment. "Go to   
Kardot and have her install your stealth hardware. Go to the Flying   
Fortress tonight, under cover of darkness. If you find him, rescue   
him. If not, be back here by dawn. I need you for the launch plans."   
Mecha saluted in relief. "Yes sir!"  
Robo Knux gazed after him as the blue robot dashed from the   
room. "Why do you think he likes this new Sonic so much, sir?"  
Robotnik popped out the floppy disk and snapped it into a jewel   
case. "I believe he has always felt fond of our Sonic, as if he were   
a brother. Now he has a duplicate who is on our side, he is free to   
make friends. It's an odd thing."  
"Why don't I feel like that toward the Guardian?" asked Robo   
Knux, looking down at his crimson hull.   
"I built you differently," replied Robotnik. "Mecha needs   
companionship. You don't."  
  
* * *  
  
Rescue was the farthest thing from Sonic's mind, although he   
watched for an opportunity to escape.  
After leaving Grendel the fire chao, Knuckles deposited his   
prisoner in a stone cell in the ground. Sonic paced about in the dark   
like a caged lion, testing the cold walls for weaknesses. If he had   
been an echidna the cell would not have contained him long, but he   
could not dig. At last the hedgehog settled down to await his doom.   
Before long a jug of water and a chunk of mouldy bread were thrown   
down. Sonic ate the bread, ignoring the mould. The jug, however, was   
a poser. The lid had been screwed on so tight Sonic couldn't open it.   
Curse the echidnas and their strong hands! Sonic wrestled with the   
lid for an hour, and was at last rewarded as the cap gave under his   
furious efforts. However, he was so charged with energy and fury it   
was a while before he could drink anything.  
Although this provided some amusement, Sonic was almost asleep   
two hours later, when his cell trapdoor screeched open. "Sonic   
Hedgehog," called Knuckles's voice.  
Sonic leaped out as if on springs and was helped to his feet by   
Knuckles. There were three echidnas with him, all armed with   
crossbows. Knuckles carried a snub-nosed pistol. Sonic eyed their   
weapons, then looked at Knuckles. "What's up with this junk, Knu--I   
mean, Mister Guardian?"  
"Insurance," said the echidna. "Come with us."  
They led him up through the fortress at gun and arrow point.   
The three bodyguards did not speak. Sonic sneaked looks at them   
whenever he could. Their eyes were rimmed with white stripes like   
wheel spokes. They wore silver bands around their dreadlocks and   
heavy iron spikes on their knuclaws. Their dark eyes glittered with   
malice whenever he looked at them. Sonic wondered what they did for   
a living, then decided he didn't want to know.  
They wound their way through the mountain, up steep spiraling   
staircases and winding passages. Periodically they passed a slit   
window in the steel outer wall, and Sonic saw the sun was setting. He   
must have been in the cell all afternoon. Knuckles seemed to be   
watching the sun too, for he stepped up the pace of their march. Sonic   
couldn't help but notice the increasing tension of his escorts.   
Wherever they were going, it was interesting. He wondered why they   
hadn't tied him up.  
The temperature of the air began to increase. The higher they   
went the warmer it grew, the heat radiating at them from the floor and   
walls. Sonic thought of the smoking mountaintop he had seen on his   
flight in. It looked like they were going to throw him into the volcano.   
Well, he wouldn't let them. He masked his determination with a   
relaxed walk, and smiled at Knuckles when the echidna looked at him.   
If only he didn't have that gun ... Sonic could outrun bullets, but   
not at extremely close range.  
They came to a door and stepped out on a thin metal walkway on   
the side of the mountain. Sonic looked down with a twist in his   
stomach. They were near the top of the highest peak, and there was   
nothing on the steel mountain to break your fall for miles. Looking   
up, Sonic could see a plume of smoke drifting with the breeze high   
above. "Is it too much to ask where we're going?" he asked.  
"To see the torris, if you must know," snapped Knuckles. He was   
fingering the blue stone about his neck with his free hand. They   
walked for a few minutes in silence.  
"I thought a torris was a griffin," said Sonic.  
One of the guards snorted, and Knuckles cracked a smile. "He   
doesn't know what a torram is. Poor uneducated hedgehog."  
"It's got you four scared to death," Sonic pointed out.  
Knuckles bared his teeth and brandished his pistol. "You would   
die of fear if you knew what you were about to see."  
Sonic held his tongue after that, all curiosity. The very air   
was hot by this time, and there was a smell like hot rock. As they   
neared the summit, a red light began to shine on the walkway.  
At last they rounded the last corner and came to a wide flat   
area. Beyond it, a solid wall of flame licked into the sky. It was   
hot, but not particularly fear-inspiring. "What, you going to throw   
me in?" Sonic called over the roar of the flames. Knuckles wasn't   
listening. The echidna was staring into the fire as if hypnotized, as   
were the other three. At once Knuckles bowed, paying homage to the   
fire, and the guards did the same. What were they bowing to? The   
only one standing, Sonic peered into the fire, but could see nothing   
in particular. There didn't seem to be any fuel burning; the fire   
simply existed.  
Then his insides knotted in terror. The rippling, waving   
flames had changed shapes into the figure of a bird, a bird made of   
billowing fire. Its form appeared and vanished in the light around   
it as it stared at them with brilliant eyes. It was something like   
the chao, but more alien, more uncontrollable.  
As they stood there, the creature left the fire about it and   
paced forward. Its feet did not touch the ground, and were the almost   
invisible blue of the base of a candle flame. Its wings were open and   
burning yellow, but its eyes were too bright to face. It made a   
sound, a hot, spitting sizzle that formed words Sonic could not   
understand. Knuckles rose to his feet and replied in the same   
language. The guards listened, then moved toward Sonic. One of them   
slipped off his steel claws, revealing a strip of rope wrapped   
around his fist. They were going to throw him in after all.  
Sonic's shoulder caught Knuckles in the small of the back,   
flinging him to the ground. The pistol flew from his startled grasp,   
and Sonic snatched it up. The bodyguards cocked their crossbows, but   
Sonic held the pistol to Knuckles's head. "Go ahead," he said to them.   
They exchanged a glance and lay down their arms. The hedgehog was gone   
like a shot, straight down the mountain's rough metal side. As one   
the guards fled.  
"I told you it would not work," said the fire-creature to   
Knuckles as he stood up. "You do not understand. He is not to be   
used that way."  
Knuckles would have said something foul had he been facing   
anything but the torris. "Help me find him!" he said.  
The fiery bird stared at him, and the fire beyond it was full   
of eyes, hot, intelligent, knowing.  
Knuckles backed down. He snatched up one of his guard's   
abandoned crossbows, then leaped off the mountaintop in a glide. No   
one could withstand the torris, they were too powerful. And Sonic   
had fled, as if he had known what Knuckles had planned to do to   
him.  
  
* * *  
  
Sonic escaped the steel-mountains.  
It took him an hour of flat-out running, sometimes along   
near-vertical surfaces that his sneakers could barely get a purchase   
on. He carried the pistol on one hand. It gave him an advantage over   
this people and their menagerie that outsmarted him at every turn.  
As the sun sank and evening sprang into the sky, there came a   
shrill wail from the torris-peak. It pierced his eardrums and froze   
the heart, and Sonic stumbled in mid-stride. It came to him that   
the torris were at their most powerful at sunset. At the same time,   
he noticed something glowing through his glove. The ring! He had   
forgotten it.  
He didn't examine it until he had cleared the forbidding steel   
walls and gained the tree cover of the lower slopes. Panting, the   
hedgehog crawled under a tangled mass of bushes and lay flat, eyes   
closed. This was bad. How could he get off the island? Would the   
torris get him? What was Knuckles going to do to him? Sonic lifted   
his head and pulled off his glove. Beneath it the moonstone ring   
glowed like fire, first white, then crimson, then fiery blue. Was it   
calling the torris to him?  
Time to take stock of his situation. He donned his glove and   
opened the pistol's ammunition chamber. There were four bullets   
inside. Sonic snapped it shut and assured himself he knew how it   
worked. He had eaten that mouldy hunk of bread in the cell, which   
was currently sitting in his stomach like a brick. At least he wasn't   
hungry.  
Sonic stepped into the open and scanned the sky. The flames   
atop the mountain looked as if someone had sprayed them with oil, but   
they were not pursuing him. However, further off, something dark   
was soaring, drifting like a plane. It was a moment before Sonic   
realized it was a gliding echidna silhouetted against the sunset. He   
shrank into the cover of the trees. Could all the echidnas glide, or   
was it Knuckles's peculiar trait? He had better not risk it. He   
whirled and set off at a lope through the darkening forest.  
He found himself thinking that his survival belt would have   
come in handy. Maybe he had been wearing it for just such an occasion.   
Something clicked, as if a great hole had been torn in the curtain   
in his head. He remembered standing in a place full of dark machinery,   
and the echo to Slasher's voice as she told him to put on the belt.   
"There's no telling what you might find." Eagerly he probed the hole   
for other information. He remembered a whirling, metallic light,   
then a stunning explosion in his head. Had he been struck by someone   
and thrown into a portal? Who would do such a thing?  
The trees parted ahead. Sonic slowed to tiptoe, crept to a   
tree and peered around it. It was a meadow of a few acres, covered   
in pale grass under the deepening blue sky. Sonic scanned the heavens.   
The great inverted bowl was empty but for a few early stars. Maybe   
the echidnas were searching another area. Sonic remained where he   
was for another five minutes, watching and listening. Nothing   
happened. Crickets chirped in the brush around him, and in the   
distance frogs croaked in chorus. The air smelled of dew and green   
leaves.  
Light. Sonic's head jerked around like a frightened animal.   
A flicker of light that appeared and went out. Here, there, as if   
leaves were bursting into flame at random. Torris! But where were   
they? The sparks and flickers were about fifty feet away, but there   
was no form, no focus to the fire.  
The hedgehog exploded into frenzied flight that rocketed him   
across the meadows and into the woods. To his horror, the flickers   
appeared in the trees about him, trailing after, and appearing   
before, no matter how fast he ran. It was like trying to outrun the   
very air.  
A foot caught in a curled root and he crashed into a bed of   
knobby ferns. Scratched and bleeding, he sat up and nursed his   
twisted ankle. "That's what you get for running in strange woods!"   
he scolded himself. "You're lucky it isn't broken." His ankle hurt,   
but it wasn't bad. He would be able to walk in a few minutes.  
Tiny tongues of fire were all about them now, like fireflies.   
Sonic watched, half afraid and half defiant. He had never heard of   
these things, but they couldn't be good, not if Knuckles had meant to   
sacrifice him to them. "Yeah?" he said under his breath. "You don't   
scare me." The ring on his finger was again glowing. He covered it   
with his other hand.  
The flickers and sparkles drew together before him, and there   
stood the outline of a lion. It was formed by touches and tongues of   
flame here and there, as if it were an invisible creature that set   
the air on fire. Its eyes, like the eagle's, were too white-hot to   
face. Again Sonic was gripped with a terror so great it was alien. He   
wanted to throw up, he wanted to grovel, he wanted it to go away. He   
turned his head away and closed his eyes, but he could hear the soft   
hiss of the fire. Then the hiss formed into words.  
"Why are you here, Sonic Hedgehog?"  
"I ... I was kidnapped," Sonic croaked without looking up.  
"Why are you in this world?" repeated the voice, if a voice it   
could be called. "You do not belong here. You will die. You must   
return at once."  
"I can't," Sonic whimpered in self-pity. "We don't have a   
portal."  
"You wear the Stone of Light," said the torram, without   
inflection. "Use it at once. Knuckles Echidna came to us to make   
you his slave, and if he catches you again he will succeed. Our   
power is not the only one available."  
Sonic mustered his courage and turned to face the creature.   
He felt his insides had turned to mush. There was something in it   
bigger and stronger than he was, a power he could not fathom or hope   
to control, yet something as clean as fire itself. Something so   
clean that the air in comparison burned upon contact, like a stone   
that entered the atmosphere of a planet. "Who are you?" he whispered.  
"I am a servant of He who holds the seven stars and the seven   
lamps," replied the creature. "He who was and is and is to come.   
Holy is His name." With this enigmatic statement, the presence of the   
torram was removed.  
Sonic fled at once.  
He knew better now than to run with reckless abandon through   
the dark forest, but he could jog along at a good clip. He   
assured himself of the presence of his ring and the pistol. The   
ring was the Stone of Light? How in the world was he to use it to get   
home? Why did weird creatures like the torris have to speak in riddles?  
He slowed to circle a fallen tree and came face to face with   
Knuckles.  
Neither expected to see the other, and whipped out their weapons   
at once. "Drop your bow," said Sonic coolly. "Bullets fly a lot faster   
than arrows."  
"You don't know much about crossbows," replied Knuckles with   
the entire Ice Cap range in his voice. "Especially these. The fire   
rate may be slower, but they'll kill you just as dead."  
The hedgehog and echidna faced each other in the gloom under the   
trees, waiting for the other to make the first move. Sonic studied   
his enemy's face; the warpaint around his eyes, the polished golden   
rings in his deadlocks, the hands that gripped the stock of the   
crossbow, the hands that had given Sonic a high five and slapped him   
on the back. The dark blue eyes that had smiled at him in a playful   
salute. "It's all ready, Sonic. Ready to boldly go where no Hedgehog   
has gone before?" His voice shouting, "Watch out for the screwdriver!"   
Then the savage explosion as the metal bit slashed into Sonic's   
forehead ...  
Sonic's hands quivered. If he fired, Knuckles would die in   
both worlds. His friend, who had attacked the power couplings to   
disconnect the forcefield which was hurling metal objects like   
shrapnel. His friend, whose life he had saved on several occasions.  
He backed away a step, then another and lowered the pistol.   
Knuckles watched him warily, the crossbow still aimed at Sonic's heart.   
"I can't hurt you," said Sonic. "You're my friend. I can't do it,   
Knux." He flung the pistol into the bushes.  
The arrow skipped through Sonic's spines and struck the ground   
nearby. "I told you not to call me that," said Knuckles, whipping   
out another bolt and locking it back.  
Sonic whirled, dove under the fallen tree's trunk, wormed his   
way under it on his belly, then leaped to his feet and ran for it.   
But he was not quite fast enough.  
He staggered and clutched at his chest, and coughed. There was   
an arrow in his back--he could feel the cold metal like a massive   
splinter lodged between his shoulder blades. He gasped in pain and   
looked skyward to see a burning star swoop down toward him. Another   
torris come to kill him. He couldn't get his breath. He gagged and   
stumbled to his knees, hating the pain, the intrusion of the arrow,   
and Knuckles for being a good shot.  
  
* * *  
  
Metal Sonic plunged from the sky, his muffler disengaged and   
afterburner roaring. The time for silence was over--what was needed   
now was speed! His scanners told him Knuckles was running toward   
Sonic, armed with a crossbow. Sonic was down, and sensors indicated   
he had been shot.  
Mecha swooped into the trees like a giant black bee, his eyes   
a murderous red. He flew to meet Knuckles, one hand outstretched,   
the steel claws waiting. Knuckles saw him coming and ducked, but   
Mecha flipped in midair, sank his claws into the echidna's head, and   
electrified his hull. The echidna yelled and slumped to the ground,   
unconscious.  
The robot swooped toward Sonic, who was sitting on his hands   
and knees, wheezing in pain. "Take it out," he begged as Mecha   
landed. "Please take it out."  
Mecha saw the light glinting on the arrow's shaft sticking out   
of Sonic's back. "Keep still," he said, kneeling beside the hedgehog.   
He leaned close and performed an x-ray scan. Sonic gripped the robot's   
arm with both hands to steady himself.  
A moment later Metal Sonic sat back on his heels. "The barbed   
tip is small," he said. "I could pull it out, but you will bleed."  
"If no arteries are busted, do it," panted Sonic. Mecha looked   
at him a moment, expressionless as a robot would be, but with red   
eyes dimmed. Then he grasped one of Sonic's hands and reached for the   
arrow. Sonic twitched and sucked in his breath through his teeth,   
then Mecha presented the arrow to him. "It has a very small head,"   
the robot explained. "Otherwise I would not have been able to extract   
it."  
"Mecha," groaned Sonic, head drooping toward the pine needles,   
"I don't care, just get me out of here."  
A moment later the robot was soaring over the island, Sonic in   
his arms. "It's a pity we are the same size," said Mecha as they   
flew. "This will be an uncomfortable journey." Sonic grunted. Mecha   
had looped an arm across his chest and was holding him against his   
side, out of the way of his engine intake. Sonic could feel blood   
trickling through his spines. It felt like it had when he had lay in   
the weeds on the other side of the portal, stunned, the cut on his   
head oozing.  
The last thing he saw was the half moon reflecting on the   
ocean, creating a shimmering path to guide them home.  
  
* * *  
  
He awoke to find his face mashed into a pillow, which now had   
a great damp patch on it from sleeping with his mouth open. Sonic   
lifted his head, closed his mouth and felt a nagging pain in his   
back. Gingerly he rolled onto his side. A probing hand encountered   
bandages on a small shaved area on his back. All in all, it wasn't   
that bad.  
It was morning. Sonic lay in bed and watched a breeze stir the   
curtains for some time before he realized how quiet it was. He had   
never heard Knothole so hushed, except in the face of impending   
attack. Curious, he got up and padded to the window. There he   
discovered Leviathan's masked raptor face on the other side of the   
pane. "What are you doing out there?" Sonic demanded, startled.  
"Keeping tabs on you," said the cyborg raptor in his creepy   
natural voice. "Dr. Robotnik worried the arrow was poisoned."  
"I feel okay," said Sonic, looking around for his shoes.   
"Where's Mecha and Robo Knux?"  
"On a mission," said Leviathan. "Come and eat breakfast."  
Taking a meal with Leviathan was not high on the list of things   
Sonic considered 'fun'. Later he thought of that meal with a cold   
shudder. Leviathan was not alive in the animal sense, but the sight   
of him quietly eating from a plate seemed to reverse that image.  
As they finished, Sonic asked, "So what mission did everybody   
go on?"  
"Today at noon, the ion satellite will launch," replied his   
babysitter.  
Sonic snapped to attention. "What's the plan?"  
Leviathan explained, then rose to clear the table. Sonic was   
out the door as soon as he turned his back.  
The hedgehog headed for the highway, his belly full and his   
spirits optimistic. The sun was shining, the air was warm, the hole   
in his back didn't pain him much, and the Stone of Light was still   
on his finger. How did it work? He prodded about in the tattered   
remains of the memory block for the instructions. Slasher had given   
it to him, but the details were hazy. Oh well, it would come to him.   
In the meantime he had a plan.  
Sonic came to highway I-4 and looked both ways. Empty. He   
stepped onto the asphalt and began to walk in the direction of   
Sonotropolis, ears on full alert. C'mon, Tails!  
He heard the grind of rubber on pavement before he heard the   
engines. He stepped off the road and held out a thumb. The lead   
bike's rider set the brakes and left two smoking streaks of rubber   
as he skidded to a stop, his gang doing the same around him. The   
rider of the lead bike was a lithe two-tailed fox. Sonic couldn't   
help but notice he had black spike-studded boots instead of red and   
white sneakers. The fox flipped off his goggles and looked him over.   
"Dude, can I get a ride?" asked Sonic in his best slang. "I   
gotta get to the commercial launch pad."  
Tails's eyes narrowed. There was something cold and ruthless   
in his face. "Why don't you run, hedgie?"  
Sonic switched tactics. He was evil, after all. "You take me   
where I want to go, kid, or I'll rig your bikes with explosives next   
oil change."  
"I change my own oil," said Tails, and one of his tails   
flicked. "But since I owe you a favor ..." he jerked a thumb at the   
back seat of his bike.  
Ten seconds later Sonic was seated behind Tails, ears blowing   
in the wind. This way he wouldn't hurt his back running. Having an   
evil double wasn't so bad after all. Here he was, cruising the anti-  
verse in style!  
The Million Miles gang travelled faster than Sonic had given   
them credit for, and before long they pulled up outside a vast   
fenced facility with a mass of tall orange towers in the distance.   
Tails eyed Sonic as he dismounted. "Keep your sticky fingers off my   
ride, got it? Me and my homies don't appreciate it."  
"You got it," said Sonic. He walked toward the gates as Tails   
and his gang roared off.  
Entry was easy. He walked to the guardhouse and eyeballed the   
guard. The guard blanched and waved him through. Sonic entered the   
fence, chortling to himself. This was like being Robotnik!  
The plan was to take advantage of the experimental fuel supply.   
It was a condensed gas that exploded on contact with oxygen. The   
smallest air leak would blow the whole thing to kingdom come. Metal   
Sonic, the smaller and quicker of the Metallix, would set a single   
explosive on one of the rocket's fuel tanks. Robo Knux would cover   
for him, and when they had cleared the area, Robotnik would blow it   
from their getaway hovercar.  
"Hasta lasagna, don't get any on ya," Sonic thought as he   
jogged toward the launch station.  
  
* * *  
  
The Sonic native to that world was reclining in an armchair in   
the main control tower, a beer in hand, when his watch beeped. He   
found a message from Miles Prower, the gang leader. Well well, how   
was little Miles doing? He pressed a button and listened to the fox's   
voice.   
"Heya Sonic, I just picked up your twin and dropped him off at   
the launch pad. I thought it was you, but," Tails chuckled nastily,   
"he was too nice. Thought I'd warn you, since I owe you a favor."  
Sonic rose to his feet and peered out the window. Slasher lifted   
her head and watched him from the corner, where she was covered in   
bandages. She wouldn't be patrolling for a while. Sonic ignored her.   
If that other hedgehog was here, there was trouble afoot. He gulped   
the rest of his beer and returned to his chair. He pulled a   
dufflebag from under it and extracted a pair of white sneakers with   
red straps. Meeting the other hedgehog had been an unsettling   
experience. He pondered the idea of an alternate Sonic. His evil twin.   
It made the spines on his back stand erect. If it was so, they were   
enemies. It had been weird looking at his mirror image, and seeing   
his own thoughts and feelings reflected on that face. Half of them.   
What does that mean? he thought, tightening one buckle, then the   
other. He's only half me? But we were brought into existence at the   
same instant--I felt it and he felt it. Are we two parts of the same   
person?  
He shook his head as he stood up. He was pondering the   
mysteries of the universe when his satellite launch was in danger.   
He stamped his feet to assure himself that his speed shoes were   
seated right, and left the tower.  
  
* * *  
  
"Psst!"  
The alien Sonic spotted Robo Knux, hidden behind the buttress   
of a tower strut. Sonic peered around to make sure no one was   
watching, then dashed to him. The robot yanked him behind the cement   
buttress at once. "What do you think you're doing? Our Sonic is here!"  
Sonic pulled away and rubbed his back. "Don't haul me around   
like that, I think you made it bleed again."  
"Sorry," said Robo Knux without an ounce of remorse. "Our plan   
was going perfectly. Why must you disrupt it?"  
"I wasn't gonna disrupt it," said Sonic. "I was gonna help!   
Where's Mecha?"  
"He's waiting for the fueling vehicle to leave," said Robo Knux,   
exasperated. "And if you want to help, go home."  
"Forget it, buddyroe," said Sonic, peering around the cement   
block. "I'm a Freedom Fighter, too. I'm gonna circle around and watch."   
He was gone in a flash of blue. Robo Knux cursed in useless anger.  
Only three feet away, a blue hedgehog in white sneakers leaned   
against the other side of the buttress. He had heard every word.  
  
* * *  
  
Metal Sonic stood atop a wide metal beam, watching a massive   
vehicle hung with tubes and tanks back away from the rocket's side. He   
looked at the clock on the main tower, which displayed the countdown.   
Five minutes and thirty-two seconds. Plenty of time.  
The robot floated across the interior of the support tower   
toward the rocket's slick white side. He landed on the inner struts and   
scanned for lifeforms. The area had been cleared. Perfect. He flipped   
open a cargo panel on his lower arm and removed the magnetic charge.   
One little hole in the fuel tank, and the Freedom Fighters would have   
struck another blow against tyranny.  
Mecha flew around the rocket's side to the spot where the fuel   
tank resided under the ship's skin. He set the charge on the metal   
surface, clicked it on, then dove earthward. His job was done.  
  
* * *  
  
Sonic just missed him.  
A minute after Metal Sonic left, the hedgehog arrived at the base   
of the tower, shaded his eyes and looked up. The charge was invisible   
at that distance. "He's not here yet," he thought. He jumped for the   
bottom cross-bar of the tower and scrambled up. "I always wanted to   
climb one of these," he muttered, walking up a diagonal strut and   
jumping to the next one.  
"I have, too," said a voice.  
Sonic looked toward the ground, already twenty feet below. There   
stood his evil twin, with white shoes instead of red. The other Sonic  
began to climb after him. "Tell me, where are you going?"  
"Up," the good Sonic replied, leaping onto another beam.  
"Liar," grunted the evil Sonic, pulling himself up. "You're   
looking for your buddy robot."  
"What, can you read my mind?" good Sonic called down, gloating   
at how much faster he could climb. "I can't read yours, and I'm not   
sure I'd want to."  
"You don't have to be a mind reader to eavesdrop," called evil   
Sonic. "Tell me why you're going to blow up my nice rocket."  
"Because you're going to blow up the nice Freedom Fighters,"   
good Sonic replied, eyeing the rocket's side. Three more crossbars to   
go.  
"I'll have you know that both Mecha bots and Doc were   
apprehended a few minutes ago."  
Good Sonic froze. "How ...?" He recovered. "You're lying. You're   
my evil twin."  
"What makes you evil, launching a rocket or blowing one up?"   
replied the other Sonic.  
"I don't have time for a philosophical discussion," good Sonic   
shot back. There was the charge. Mecha had come and gone, and he was   
trapped atop a skeleton tower with his evil twin in pursuit.  
The other Sonic stopped climbing for a moment to peer up at his   
enemy. He followed his gaze to the silver square on the rocket's white   
hull, and his eyes lit up. "Aha! So there IS an explosive!"  
"Yeah?" jeered good Sonic from above. "What are you gonna do   
about it? It's gonna blow in three minutes."  
Evil Sonic smiled, showing his teeth. "You think I'd come all   
the way up here without a plan? I can't believe you're my duplicate."   
He swung out, touched his feet to the rocket's steel side, and walked   
across it to the charge.  
"Cheater!" good Sonic yelled. "No magnets!"  
"Who said anything about magnets?" said evil Sonic, folding his   
arms. Standing sideways on the rocket, he had to look up to see his   
duplicate. "My shoes have built-in anti-gravity. That's why I can travel   
so fast." He plucked the charge off the wall, then threw it. Good   
Sonic watched as it sailed out of sight. "Jerk!" he spat. Evil Sonic   
called him something worse and added a sneer. Infuriated, good Sonic   
jumped off the tower and tackled his horizontal enemy.  
Several seconds later, a Sonic with white shoes was holding a   
Sonic with red shoes by the ankle, dangling fifty feet above the   
pavement. "Any last words?" said evil Sonic, grinning.  
"Yeah," retorted good Sonic. "We're the same person in two   
places. If I die, you die, too."  
The other Sonic stopped grinning. He looked toward the countdown   
clock and bit his lip.  
Hanging upside down, good Sonic fondled his ring for the   
thousandth time. If he could teleport away ... then the rocket would   
launch. Why did he have to get involved in messes like this? The blood   
rushing to his head was making him see spots. He blinked. One of the   
spots was still there, the sun glinting on it. "Duck!" he yelled   
without thinking.  
Evil Sonic jumped sideways in time to avoid Robo Knux. The   
crimson robot was flying with one arm outstretched, his entire frame   
braced for impact. When his target dodged, Robo Knux slammed into the   
rocket's side. His steel claws drove in up to the hilt.  
No one said a word for a stunned second. Robo Knux broke the   
silence. "Oops."  
"Don't pull out!" cried evil Sonic. "How long are your claws?"  
Robo Knux held up his free hand. "Eight inches."  
The twin Sonics exchanged a horrified glance. The tips of the   
robot's claws were inside the fuel tank. When he pulled them out,   
air would rush in, and the fuel would explode.  
Robo Knux looked at good Sonic. "If it blows, it'll kill him   
and we'll be free."  
Evil Sonic's eyes widened. "And let you win? Never!"  
Good Sonic blinked again. Were those spots or was he seeing   
flickers of light? His brain felt like it was shrink-wrapped. He   
looked at Robo Knux, then at his evil self, who was Robotnik to   
this world.  
Robo Knux's green eyes dimmed to black. "I can be rebuilt," he   
said.  
The choice was horrible. And yet, there might be a way of   
escape. The ring on his finger ... all he had to do was rub it.  
He tore off his gloves and touched the stone. "Do it," he said   
to Robo Knux.  
"No!" screamed evil Sonic, and let go of his duplicate's ankle.  
In painfully slow motion, as he began to fall, Sonic saw Robo   
Knux wrench his claws out of the rocket's side. Fire spurted through   
the holes, then the wall split with white fire. For an instant, it   
seemed that the fire was an eagle, a lion, a bull, a man, looking at   
him with eyes of pure light.  
He rubbed the ring.  
The shockwave of incinerating heat blasted his body, but it felt   
like hands, reaching out to catch him and break his fall, hands of   
searing fire.  
A wave of refreshing coolness struck him, and the world turned   
from orange to silver. He was floating, but he was burned. Ouch, he   
was burned. He must not be as dead as he thought.  
He struck the ground and knew no more.  
  
* * *  
  
He was lying in bed somewhere. Sonic opened his eyes. His hut.   
He was lying in his own bed in the proper Knothole. He tried to move   
and realized he was bandaged from head to toe. "Hey," he said weakly   
to the empty room. "Is anybody there?"  
The door opened and Slasher bounded in. Sonic gasped, then   
relaxed as he realized her wings were feathered. "Sonic!" she said.   
"How do you feel?"  
"Like toast," Sonic replied. "What happened to me?"  
"We were hoping you could tell us," said Slasher, looking at   
him with one emerald eye. "You got hit on the head by a screwdriver   
right as you entered the portal. Then, earlier this morning, the   
portal opened and you flew out headfirst. You mind telling me how you   
got so burned?"  
Sonic's thoughts wandered back to the jumbled images of the   
explosion. "The torris," he said. "The torris put me into the portal.   
But they burned me when they touched me." He looked at Slasher to   
find her staring at him with both eyes. He also noticed that her right   
forearm was in a sling. "What happened to you?"  
Slasher looked down. "This? Oh, I got it caught in something."  
"Ha!" said a voice, and a green hedgehog stepped into the hut.   
He had an untidy forelock that dangled in his eyes, and he wore a   
medallion around his neck. "Don't let her brush it off, Sonic. She only   
saved my bacon with it."  
"Get out, Manic," said Slasher, pointing at the door. "He's not   
ready to meet you yet."  
"You heard me, Sonic," said the stranger as he left.  
"Who was that?" asked Sonic, raising an eyebrow.  
Slasher bared all her teeth in a smile. "That was Manic. He's   
the representative of Spark in this universe I went to."  
Sonic sat up, forgetting his burns. "You went to a universe?   
Cool! What happened?"  
"Strange things," Slasher sighed. "It's a long story. I'll tell   
you about it later."  
"After I eat," said Sonic. "I'm starved for a chilidog. Oh, call   
in Tails, will you? I wouldn't mind seeing Knuckles, too."  
Slasher turned to go, then turned back. "What DID happen to you?"  
Sonic smiled. "Well Slash, there was another Sonic--an evil   
Sonic--and I killed him."  
  
* * *  
  
When Sonic, reeling in pain, stumbled through the portal, Slasher   
bounded through it after him.  
The portal generators had been hidden in an abandoned warehouse   
once occupied by a biotic army called the Black Claw. The Freedom   
Fighters stumbled across it and assembled a crew to figure out what it   
was. Sonic, Slasher, Knuckles and Rotor were chosen.  
It took some time to make sense of the tangled machinery, wires,   
conduits and lenses. It used a lot of energy, whatever it was, for a   
massive, dusty Tesla coil sat in the corner. Knuckles and Rotor   
climbed all over the machinery, shouting their findings. Between them,   
they figured out it was a machine to split dimensions.  
"I want to go to another dimension!" Sonic clamored, sounding   
like a kid who wanted to ride the merry-go-round. "Please, Slasher?   
I'll take food and stuff! Please?"  
She looked at him with one critical eye. "One word. Interweb."  
"Oh come on," said Sonic. "There's probably thousands of   
dimensions. Just set this thing to go to every dimension but the   
fifth."  
"The Interweb resides between the fourth and fifth dimensions,   
but that's not the point," replied Slasher. "The point is it's   
dangerous. You may not be able to get back."  
"We don't even know if it works," called Knuckles. He and Rotor   
were trying to make sense of an unlabeled control panel. "There's   
probably a reason the biotics never used it."  
"Yeah, they were wimps," said Sonic, grinning. "Let's try it on   
me! Please?"  
"Hedgehogs rush in where angels fear to tread," growled Slasher.   
"Fine, but I want you to take something with you."  
"All right!" exclaimed the blue hedgehog. "Let me get my supply   
belt."  
He took off his emerald belt so as not to risk it disrupting the   
portal, and took the moonstone ring from Slasher. "Don't lose it," she   
warned him. "This ring gives you the ability to jump between worlds.   
All you have to do is rub the stone."  
"Where'd you get it?" Sonic asked, raising an eyebrow.  
Slasher leaned close and lowered her voice. "You remember a   
long time ago, when I got back to Mobius using an object I kept   
secret?"  
Sonic's eyes widened. "You mean this is it? Whoa ..." He tucked   
it into his belt reverently.  
"Yes," Slasher replied. "If something goes wrong, you'll be able   
to come back."  
Things began to go wrong as soon as Knuckles and Rotor powered   
up the Tesla coil.  
First, the control panel didn't work. When Rotor pressed a   
button, sparks sprayed onto the floor. "I can't control it!" the walrus   
called over the buzz of the coil.  
"The portal's opening, anyway!" Knuckles yelled back.   
The portal frame was a ring of steel, set every few inches with   
glass lenses. Within it, the air was beginning to shimmer and sparkle.   
Sonic danced from foot to foot. "When can I go?"  
"Hold your horses," said Slasher, arms folded. "It takes time   
to power up these things."  
They watched as the air within the loop turned into a wavering   
silver pool with a dark center. Knuckles walked up and watched, too.   
When the image in the air had ceased to change colors, he slapped   
Sonic on the back and grinned. "It's ready, Sonic. Ready to boldly   
go where no Hedgehog has gone before?"  
"You bet!" said Sonic, walking toward the waiting pool of light.  
At that moment there came a shrill whine from the equipment,   
and the air tingled with electricity. Rotor jumped away from the   
machinery as every metal surface snapped with static. "Forcefield!"   
he yelled. At once there came a power flux, and every metal object   
in the room was yanked toward the Tesla coil. "Watch out for that   
screwdriver!" Knuckles yelled as everyone ducked. Sonic looked around   
to see whom he was addressing, and the tool slashed across his face.   
The hedgehog stumbled backward, blinded by the pain, and fell through   
the portal.  
Knuckles bolted across the room and smashed his fists into a   
pair of power couplings. The forcefield died at once, its power   
severed. "Sonic's hurt, I'm going after him!" Slasher roared over the   
noise. She leaped through the portal.  
"No, don't!" Rotor hollered as she vanished. The walrus looked   
at Knuckles. "It's very unstable! She might not go to Sonic's   
dimension at all!"  
  
* * *  
  
Slasher's clawed feet struck the pavement. Instantly she was   
deafened by the blare of a horn. She sprang sideways with reptilian   
speed, and crouched on the sidewalk as the driver of a truck told her   
what he thought of her. Slasher hardly noticed him. Her breath   
condensed on the air in steam, and the cement underfoot felt like ice.   
Stars shown in the sky above like crystal.  
A city, she thought. As her dizzy senses righted themselves,   
she saw flashing neon signs along the street, cars travelling up and   
down, and people walking along the pavement. The cold air smelled of   
exhaust, cigarettes and french fries.  
Slasher reared up, peering about for Sonic. She didn't see him   
anywhere. Maybe he ran off.  
The big raptor paced along the sidewalk, head jerking this way   
and that. Slasher was not often frightened, as there were few things   
on Mobius she respected enough to fear. But this was different--this   
was the Unknown, where anything could happen. She hugged her wings to   
her body and peered furtively into the lit windows of a store. There   
were Mobians inside, and the signs were in New Mobian. At least she   
wasn't in the world of a foreign language.  
The big raptor arrived at the end of the block unscathed, her   
curiosity growing. Was this the Mobius of an alternate dimension?  
She rounded the corner and blinked. Just ahead was a vacant lot,   
and there was a concert playing. A group of people were standing   
about, listening. Slasher flinched. The subwoofer was quite painful,   
but she stepped to the back of the small crowd and peered into the   
shadows. Her height put her head and shoulders above the rest. Ah,   
there were the performers, but oddly enough, they were set up without   
lights. The only equipment they had were two battered amplifiers, a   
subwoofer, and instruments. From the sound of it, these consisted of   
a drumset, a piano and an electric guitar.  
The big raptor turned to walk away when the voice of someone she   
knew rose above the instruments. She turned back. That was Sonic! Why   
was he singing in a band in a strange dimension? That was Sonic for   
you, always doing the unexpected. She made him out, playing the guitar   
and singing with his heart and soul. "Where did he learn to play the   
guitar?" she wondered, suspicious.  
The attack came without warning. Slasher's tail was bumped by a   
hulking metal shape. She looked around and saw the robots were closing   
in.  
"Sonic, run!" Slasher shouted. Her voice was drowned in the   
music. She filled her lungs and let loose the heart-stopping raptor-  
scream Sonic would recognize. The music ground to a stop, heads turned,   
people gasped. "Run!" the raptor bellowed. "The robots are here!"  
For an instant it occurred to her that these robots might be   
friendly and she had made a fool of herself. Then the crowd scattered   
with cries of terror. Sonic and the two with him froze as the robots   
charged, but Slasher was still there. She hurled herself into two of   
the gorilla-like beasts. "Run Sonic, run!" she roared. She was aware   
of the three of hedgehogs fleeing for the back of the lot, then a   
steel mesh fell over her. She stumbled and went down, snarling. The   
robots were all around, at least twenty of them. Three of them wound   
a cable around her arms and legs, hogtying her securely inside the   
net. Heavy square feet clumped on the cold ground all around, and a   
robotic voice announced that the priority hedgehogs had escaped.   
Chilly steel hands lifted her by her tied feet and carried her toward   
a pod-shaped transport at the curb. They flung her in the back,   
climbed in after her, and the pod lurched into motion.  
Slasher lifted her head a little. Metal clanked, multicolored   
lights flashed, and green, helmeted eyes glared down at her. "Where   
am I?" shed asked.  
"Robotropolis," replied a robot, "home of our master, Doctor   
Robotnik."  
Robotropolis? This place was Robotropolis? "Are you ... SWAT-  
bots?" she ventured.  
"Affirmative," said the entire gang simultaneously.  
Slasher was amazed. Was this an alternate dimension, or simply   
a different time? There had never been any SWAT-bots that looked like   
this. "Where are you taking me?" she growled as the vehicle turned a   
corner and she slid against a robot's knee, pinching her wing.  
"To the robotizer," a SWAT-bot replied. "You will be punished   
for attending a concert. Music is against the law."  
"That's a dumb law," said the big raptor, wishing they would   
take her out of the net. "It sounds just like Robotnik."  
After that Slasher held her tongue. Perhaps if she didn't fight,   
the robots would let their guard down. Before long she felt the pod   
slow. She figured they were parking at the fortress, or wherever   
Robotnik was living. After a moment they stopped. The SWAT-bots flung   
the rear doors open, hauled her out by her feet, and carried her   
upside down, tail dragging, up a flight of steps toward a lit doorway.  
Slasher breathed the familiar smell of central heating, hot   
metal and exhaust that seemed to perfume all of Robotnik's bases. She   
watched the fortress pass upside down. There were robots galore, but   
here and there were a few richly dressed Mobians. Odd combination.   
It must be quite late in this world, for there wasn't much activity.  
At last they came to a small, cramped room with the all-too-  
familiar robotizer set up in the center. A robot that looked like a   
garden rake with arms droned, "Remove the prisoner's bindings. Please   
place it inside the tube. Have a nice day."  
Slasher lay limp as the three SWAT-bot escorts pulled off the   
net and untied the cables that bound her forelimbs and hindlimbs   
together. The big raptor leaped to her feet. One SWAT-bot crashed   
into the control panel, half its head missing. Another clattered to   
the floor, its head screwed around backward, and the third stumbled   
into the wall, its head gone. Slasher was a quick learner when it   
came to robotic weaknesses.  
She flashed out of the robotizer room. She didn't like this   
universe and she wanted out. She darted down a hall, hit a dead end,   
doubled back, took a left turn and found herself in what had once been   
a throne room. She didn't remember seeing this. She retraced her steps,   
sniffing for a whiff of fresh air that might lead her to a door or   
window.  
The dinosaur rounded a corner and blundered into Sonic.  
She recoiled, teeth bared, before she recognized him. "Chill,"   
he whispered. "Look, we've got to get out of here!"  
"I'm lost, lead the way," Slasher panted.  
Sonic led her through a door, along a back hall, down a flight   
of stairs and out into the free, cold night. "Thank you!" she said as   
he led her to an iron fence. "Want a ride? And how's your head?"  
"Shh," Sonic warned. "We'll talk later. Right now we've got to   
juice. They'll be out for blood."  
"How do you know so much about this place?" Slasher began, but   
was interrupted by a voice whispering hoarsely, "Sonic, where are you?"  
"Down here," Sonic called in a loud whisper, "and I've got   
that thing that saved us!"  
"Thing?" said Slasher.  
The iron bars snapped one by one, and a green hedgehog with   
giant clippers bent the bars down to form a hole. "Come on, Sonia's in   
the van," he said, beckoning. Sonic climbed through the bars. Slasher   
eyed the hole--she was too big. Instead she opened her wings and swept   
over the fence. Sonic and the other hedgehog stared at her as she   
landed. Sonic recovered first. "Where's the van, Manic?"  
"Down there," said the green hedgehog, jerking a thumb over   
his shoulder, still staring at Slasher.  
The three jogged along the street on the outside of the fortress   
perimeter fence, and came to a van pulled up on the curb. A pink   
hedgehog leaned out the driver's side window. "Get in!" she called,   
waving a hand. "They're onto us!"  
Manic and Sonic opened the van's rear doors, shoved Slasher in,   
jumped in after her, and slammed the doors. At once the tires   
screeched under them.  
Slasher gathered up her limbs and huddled against the wall in   
the darkness, trying not to take up all the space. She heard Manic and   
Sonic clamber toward the front, Sonic demanding that Sonia let him   
drive. The van stopped, then took off again at ninety miles an hour.   
Sonic was driving, all right.  
After what seemed like hours of reckless driving, the van slowed,   
then stopped. Slasher heard the driver and passenger doors slam, then   
the rear doors opened. Blinking, she crawled out and stood, looking   
around. Sonic, Manic the green hedgehog, and Sonia, a pink hedgehog   
in a purple jumpsuit, were standing in a row, dubious looks on their   
faces. The van was parked in a cave, with pipes snaking overhead. The   
light was dim, and the air smelled damp and moldy.  
Sonic's forehead was unmarked. In addition, he and the other two   
wore little plastic shapes on chains around their necks, like some   
sort of medallion. "You're not who I'm looking for," she said, turning   
and examining the cave for an exit. "Where's Sonic?"  
"I AM Sonic," said the blue hedgehog.  
The big raptor turned back. "I'm looking for the Sonic of my   
world. I'm from a different dimension. My Sonic was injured and fell   
through the portal, have you seen him?"  
Sonic fingered his medallion, eyeing her wings and claws. "No,   
I haven't seen another Sonic ... is that why you saved us?"  
Slasher bobbed her head. "I thought you were my Sonic." She sighed,   
then held out a three-fingered hand. "I'm Slasher."  
Sonic hesitated, then shook her hand. "I'm Sonic, and these are   
my brother and sister, Manic and Sonia."  
Slasher shook hands with them. "Pleased to meet you." She was   
suddenly dead tired. "Is there someplace I could rest for a while?"  
"Over here," said Sonia, glancing at her brothers. She led the   
velociraptor across the room, through a low tunnel, and into a small   
room with a battered mattress on the floor. "It's not much," said Sonia,   
looking wistful.  
"It's fine," said Slasher, and flopped on the mattress with a   
squeal of springs. "Thanks again," she said, lowered her head, sighed   
and was asleep at once.  
  
* * *  
  
"I hope she isn't a spy," said Manic.  
It was nine o' clock the next morning, but the dim light in the   
underground lair of the hedgehogs was the same as at midnight. Slasher   
was asleep in the same position they had left her in hours before.  
Sonia appeared, her pink spines frazzled, two boxes under one   
arm. "Here's the cereal," she told her brothers, setting it on the   
table. "Really Manic, can't you pick up something other than Commander   
Crunch next time?"  
"It was a sale," said the green hedgehog, laying back his ears   
and pouring himself a bowlful.  
"Did you buy it this time or rip it off?" asked Sonic, pouring   
himself a bowl, too.  
"Hey," said Manic, jabbing Sonic with a spoon, "I don't ask how   
you pull off your speed, you don't ask how I get our food."  
"If you can call this food," said Sonia in distaste. "I can't   
feed this to that dinosaur, she'll think it's poison!"  
"If she's a spy, she won't eat our food, anyway," said Sonic with   
his mouth full. "Ask us where mom is, most likely."  
Breakfast was over, and the three were bent over a newspaper on   
the floor, reading the story of the previous night's exploits, when   
Slasher stalked in. None of them noticed her until she had snooped   
around the main room, sniffing and peering into the corners. "Hey!"   
said Sonic, looking up in surprise. "You up?"  
"Yes," said the big raptor, completing her inspection of their   
van. "Do you know if Robotnik has a dimension-portal generator   
anywhere?"  
The three hedgehogs looked at each other. "If he does, we haven't   
heard about it," said Sonic. "Why, do you want to go home?"  
"The thought had crossed my mind," replied their guest, leaning   
over the table and sniffing the boxes of cereal. "Is this Commander   
Crunch?"  
"Yes, want some?" asked Sonia, rising to her feet and dusting   
off her knees.   
Slasher hesitated a second, then said, "Okay." She didn't care   
for sweets, and loathed super-sugared breakfast cereal, but it was   
impolite to scorn the food your host offered. She ate quickly and   
without a word.   
As she finished, Manic left the room. He returned a few minutes   
later with a roll of paper under one arm. "Since we've read Robotnik's   
news," he said, laying his armload on the table, "let's take a look   
at the resistance news!" The sheets of newsprint he unrolled were   
solid text, with no graphics. It looked like a massive classified ad   
section. But the interest the hedgehogs showed told Slasher that   
these were no mere ads. Slasher bent over the paper with them.  
It was no media outlet. The articles were misspelled, typos   
abounded and the ink was smudged, but the news was real. The pages   
were filled with reports of damage done to Robotnik, printouts of   
various shipments and other useful information, and the latest   
movements of something called S. and D. Upon asking, Slasher was   
informed that this stood for Sleet and Dingo, two of Robotnik's non-  
robotic lackeys.  
"What about Metal Sonic?" asked Slasher.  
Sonic looked at her, one eyebrow cocked. "Who?"  
"Oh," said the big raptor, feeling foolish. "In my world he's   
a robot we factor into our planning. Nevermind."  
"Metal ... Sonic?" the blue hedgehog persisted, all curiosity.   
"Am I robotized in your world?"  
Slasher didn't want to explain, but Sonic badgered her until   
she answered him. The things she told him caught Manic and Sonia's   
attention as well.  
"So," said Manic, "Metal Sonic is a robot with Sonic's speed,   
but his one goal in life is to kill Sonic? That's really interesting."  
"Don't get any ideas," snapped Sonia, hands on her hips. "I   
know you. You'll get your pals together and hole up in your workshop,   
and--"  
"Chill," said Manic. "It would be a Metal Manic, not Metal   
Sonic. He'd be cool, like me."  
"Yeah," said Sonic, catching his brother's enthusiasm. "Welcome   
to Downtown Coolsville! Population: us." Sonic whipped off his   
medallion, which expanded before their eyes into an electric guitar.   
Manic whipped off his as well, which grew into a drumset, and the   
pair rocked the room with noise that might have passed as music.  
"What's with the band?" asked Slasher of Sonia, who was watching   
her brothers with arms folded.  
"They always do this to shut me up," she called over the noise.   
As she spoke, Sonic nodded and Manic, and the two ripped out a number   
called "Don't Leave the Band". Sonia stuck out her tongue at them and   
began to clear the table. Slasher, pretending not to mind the head-  
splitting bass drum Manic was playing, read the resistance paper.  
She learned the three were triplets, and legal heirs to the   
throne. Robotnik had usurped the throne, much as he had done to the   
Acorns in her home world, and the three lived in hiding. The   
whereabouts of their father was unknown, but their mother the Queen   
was at large and also living in hiding. Music had been outlawed   
because it was well known that the Sonic Underground, as the three   
were called, performed on the street to earn their living. They   
were considered quite talented. "Whoever said that," thought Slasher,   
teeth clenched as Sonic hit a high note on his guitar, "probably   
never heard them play." However, she couldn't help feeling sorry for   
them. They were in the same position Sally was in her world. Odd   
how the same situations existed only a few dimensions away. She   
searched for some report of Sonic being injured, but there were none.   
Perhaps she was in the wrong dimension after all. Hadn't Rotor said   
something about the portal being unstable? She had been able to see   
and hear everything for a few seconds after she entered the portal,   
as her body evaporated into particles that were reassembled as she   
emerged in this world. It had been disorienting.  
Sonic and Manic ended their song with an ear-splitting drumroll,   
then gave each other a high five as their instruments returned to   
medallions. Laughing and talking, they returned to the cleared table   
and sat down. Sonia glared at them, but her glare cracked into a   
smile. She couldn't stay mat for long. She took her seat as Slasher   
asked, "So, what's planned for today?"  
"Nothing," said Sonic.  
"Yeah," said Manic. "See, when we pull off a stunt like last   
night, it's best to lay low a few days. Robotnik's probably got all   
his goons looking for us."  
Slasher looked at the pipes snaking along the walls and   
ceiling. "Where are we, anyway?"  
"This is the safehouse," said Sonic with a mysterious grin.   
"Until we know you can be trusted, we're not gonna tell you where   
it is."  
"It's somewhere in Robotropolis," said Sonia.  
"That's another thing," said Slasher, resting one elbow on the   
table. "Why do you still live in Robotropolis? In my world everybody   
has fled because of the robotizer."  
"Your Robotnik sounds pretty extreme," muttered Manic, eying   
Slasher. "Killer robots, robotizing a whole city ..."  
"Here robotization is a punishment," explained Sonia. "If you   
can't pay your taxes or break a law. Or if you're royalty."  
"Yeah," said Sonic. "There's nothing he'd like better than to   
catch us."  
"Does he ever execute anybody?" asked Slasher with interest.  
The triplets exchanged a glance. "Yeah," said Sonic. "We saw   
him do it once. See, Robotnik handles the executions himself. He's   
got this hovercraft he uses as a base for all these wicked weapons   
and stuff."  
"When you see him coming in that ship," added Manic, "you know   
either you're gonna die, or somebody standing behind you is."  
"You thought my Robotnik was extreme," said Slasher.  
  
* * *  
  
They spent the morning hanging out, practicing on their   
various instruments, and, of all things, playing darts. There was a   
poster of Robotnik tacked to the wall in the boys' bedroom, and   
their favorite pastime was trying to place three darts in his nose.  
At noon Sonic went outside to burn some energy, but returned   
moments later. "Hey gang, it's snowing!" he called as he darted into his   
room and snatched his coat.  
"What'll we do about Slasher?" Sonia whispered to her brothers as   
they pulled on galoshes. "We can't leave her here!"  
"Let's take her," said Manic as he buttoned his trenchcoat. "She   
won't know where we are, even if she's not a spy."  
"If she's a spy I'll eat my galoshes," said Sonia. "She would   
have attacked us by now, or knifed the van's tires, or something."  
"You never know," said Sonic. "Spies can be awfully tricky. We   
might as well take her with us, no sense leaving her here alone where   
she can sabotage our equipment."  
Slasher followed the three through the outer door, down a   
malodorous sewer pipe, and up through a manhole in a shady back street.   
Sure enough, white was sifting down from the sky in a million flakes   
and collecting in a fleece on the ground. A snowball fight broke out   
at once.  
Slasher participated, but her heart was not in it. It was   
discouraging having to make friends all over again, and it gave her the   
vague feeling she was babysitting. She was stronger than they were,   
and impatient to get out and look for a way home. She walked away from   
the triplets and peered through the snow, out the street's mouth.  
The falling snow provided excellent cover for any sneaking about   
they needed to do. The ground was slick, but she was not afraid to fly   
in a snowstorm. She sniffed the air, tasting the odors of smoke,   
exhaust and raw sewer. This city smelled like Robotropolis had smelled   
at the beginning of its decay into a dead, abandoned ghost town. This   
city was not quite there, for it has still inhabited by living tenants,   
but soon ...  
Sonic ran up and looked out at the vacant street. "What're ya   
looking at?" His jacket was powdered with the remains of numerous   
snowballs.  
"The snow," replied Slasher, her breath vaporizing. "We could   
sneak back to the fortress and look for a generator. They would have a   
hard time seeing us." She lifted a cold foot out of the snow and stood   
like a heron, staring into the distance.  
"But they'll be looking for us," said Sonic, wadding up a handful   
of snow and blowing on it to make it freeze.  
"Do you always hide out after a strike?" she asked.  
"Yeah," said the blue hedgehog, lobbing the snowball at Manic.  
"Well then, they won't expect a second strike."  
Sonic looked at her, and grinned. "You might be right! Hey guys!"   
he yelled at his siblings. "Slasher wants to go to town! Wanna come?"  
  
* * *  
  
The castle was dismally quiet under the falling snow, as if its   
inhabitants disliked adverse weather conditions. SWAT-bots stood here   
and there, seeming to sleep under the wreaths of snow collecting on   
their heads. Cars passed with a muffled swish in the distance.  
"Over there, beyond that fence," whispered Sonic.  
He, Manic and Sonia were seated on Slasher's back with a blanket   
covering them. From a distance it looked as if Slasher were wearing a   
coat, and it kept the snow from collecting on her passengers.  
Slasher walked to the chainlink fence and peered through it. "It's   
a junkyard," she whispered.  
Sonic lifted the edge of the blanket. "I know it's a junkyard, duh!   
This is where we'll find out what Egghead's been working on. See any   
tarps?"  
Slasher squinted. "There's tarps over everything."  
"Anything with a tarp on it is important," said Manic, lifting   
the blanket a few inches. "Can you get us over the fence?"  
Slasher spread her wings and crouched. "Hang on, everybody," she   
warned, and sprang skyward.  
Everyone hung on until she landed on the inside of the fence,   
where Sonia fell off, and Sonic and Manic ended up hanging around   
Slasher's neck. "Some riders you are," she said as they picked   
themselves up. "Let's get cracking before somebody notices us."  
The four began peeking under the snow-covered tarps. Many covered   
wild contraptions none of them could put a name to. It occurred to   
Slasher that a portal generator might look like anything, if the one   
she had used was any example. With a shiver she retrieved the old   
blanket from the snow and spread it over her back. It was cold out   
here. As she knotted the corners around her neck, she saw something   
out of the corner of her eye. She peered up at the outline of the   
castle through the haze of falling snow. Were there flickers of light   
among the snowflakes, or was she seeing things? She cocked her head   
back and forth, looking with one eye, then the other.  
"Hsst, Sonic!" she whispered. "Look at this."  
The hedgehog jogged up and followed her gaze. "What? That's just   
the castle."  
"No, look at the snow! It's like it's ... on fire."  
Sonic squinted in silence for several seconds. Then he called   
in a whisper, "Manic! Sonia! Come here!"   
His siblings joined him and gazed up at the snow, too. "Is that   
light?" asked Sonia, shading her eyes.  
"Maybe it's a charging energy weapon," suggesting Manic,   
squinting like his brother. "What's in that wing, Sonic? I've never   
been up there."  
"I think it's Robotnik's HQ," said Sonic. "I'm not sure, I've   
never been up there, either."  
A rustle from the tarp-covered object behind them. A second   
later the hedgehogs were flat in the snow, the tarp was laid back,   
and Slasher was showing Sleet and Dingo her fine collection of fangs.  
Sleet was a scrawny grey wolf, and Dingo was a hulking yellow   
jackal. Both were dressed in warm clothing, both had guns strapped   
to their waists, and both were too surprised at being discovered to   
do more than blink.  
Manic looked up and understood in an instant. A second later the   
bounty hunters had been relieved of their weapons, and Manic was   
handing them out to his siblings.  
"What's this?" spluttered Sleet, fists clenched. "What right do   
you have to assault us, and what the heck is THAT thing?" he added,   
pointing at the snarling Slasher.  
"That," said Sonic, cocking an air-rifle and pointing it at   
them, "is a Freedom Fighter."  
"Why were you under that tarp, anyway?" added Manic, unable to   
keep from smirking. "Looking for supper?"  
"We haven't eaten rats in years," said Dingo.  
Sleet stepped on his foot. "We were on a mission, of course," he   
hissed, eyes darting from Slasher to the triplets.  
Dingo, dancing on one foot, glanced up at the flickering snow,   
and his heavy jaw dropped open. "Sleet," he stammered, "they--they're   
here!"  
Sleet looked up at the fortress, too, and the hatred drained   
from his eyes to be replaced by terror. He screeched an impolite word   
and bolted for the fence. Dingo followed him at a run.   
The four watched as they fled. "Weird," said Sonia, brushing snow   
from her coat. "I never saw them act like that."  
"I didn't know Sleet cussed," said Manic. "What's up there,   
anyhow?"  
The hedgehogs exchanged a glance. Slasher smiled fiercely. "Are we   
a go for sneaking into the fortress?"  
  
* * *  
  
Something as valuable as a dimension-rift creator was not left   
out in the elements where it could rust. It was stored in the large room   
Robotnik used as a rec room, a library, and a lab.  
He stood before the little machine, stroking his mustache. It   
operated with a soft hum, like an expensive Mercedes engine. Set in   
the front panelling was a square hole in reality, the size of a handheld   
mirror. There was no sense spending cash on a big machine when a small   
one would do the job.  
A flicker of fire, like a dying match flame, appeared in the air   
outside the portal. Robotnik's hand stopped twisting the end of his   
mustache. So, they had arrived. It was about time.  
A tongue of fire appeared in the air over the generator, no   
bigger than a candle-flame. It winked out, but others appeared, here,   
there, at random. They filled the room like fireflies, and also some   
space beyond the outside wall. These beings had no respect for physical   
boundaries.  
"Hello," said the doctor. "Welcome to my world."  
The sparks drew together and began to burn, highlighting the   
features of a human face in orange and yellow. "You have no business   
with us," said the fire in a crackling voice. "There is evil here, and   
an evil purpose."  
Robotnik ignored this. "Are you the Torris of legend?"  
"Yes," replied the fire. It had no inflection, rather like a   
SWAT-bot's voice, but the fire burned hotter or cooler with the torram's   
emotion. At this moment, the fire was leaping into the air like an oil   
torch. Robotnik retreated a step from the heat beating on his face.   
"Are you all-powerful, as the legends say?"  
The torram's eyes flashed like the sun, dazzling the doctor.   
"No," snarled his visitor. "We are not all-powerful. We are bestowed   
such strength as is needed."  
Robotnik pressed on. Their power was so close! If he could only   
control it-- "Would you do a little task for me?"  
"We will do nothing for you," said the fire. "There is only   
hatred and murder in your heart. Do you not know the commandment?" It   
pronounced the words one by one. "Thou ... shalt ... not ... kill."  
The face vanished into a thousand points of light. "Wait," called   
Robotnik, hurrying toward the open portal, through which his invisible   
guests were departing. "All I want you to do is find someone for me!   
His name is Sonic and--"  
A voice spoke out of the air. "We would not help you if there   
were assassins at your door. The Lord rebuke you." And they were gone.  
  
* * *  
  
The assassins at the door watched in petrified silence. It was   
impossible to discern Robotnik's feelings, but the sight and sound of   
the torris struck the hedgehogs and velociraptor with complete terror.   
It was a relief to see the fire vanish through the portal.  
"Let's get out of here," whispered Sonic.  
  
* * *  
  
The journey on foot back to the safehouse was long, dim and cold.   
The four walked in silence, thinking of the torris and how they had   
refused to help Robotnik. The snow continued to fall, and was already   
two feet deep in places.  
Slasher was padding along beside Sonic, who was in the lead,   
arms folded and head down. They rounded a corner, and his head jerked   
up. Slasher looked around in time to see the hedgehog dart away into   
the falling snow. Slasher stopped, and Sonia and Manic walked up   
beside her. "Where's he think he's going?" growled Manic, who had a   
fair amount of snow accumulated on his quills. "I'm freezing my tail   
off."  
"Speak for yourself," snorted Slasher, whose body length was   
two-thirds tail.  
Sonia shivered. "Sometimes he does this. Maybe he saw a SWAT-bot."   
She cocked an ear. "Wait, I think he's calling us. Let's go."  
The three charged off into the snow, following the hedgehog's   
already softening tracks.  
They came to an alley where the snow was trampled and garbage   
was strewn about, as if a serious battle had taken place. "Oh my gosh,"   
said Sonia. She rushed into the alley, calling her brother's name.   
Manic bolted after her, yelling for her to come back it wasn't safe.   
Slasher rolled her eyes. Sonic wouldn't have a scratch on him,   
whatever had happened.  
Sonic was unhurt, but tears of rage stood in his eyes as he   
ran to meet them, spines standing erect. Speechless, she beckoned to   
them and led them to the end of the alley.  
There in the shadows, the snow stained maroon, lay two bodies.   
The area showed evidence of a violent struggle, for the walls were   
dented, the snow had been scraped from the pavement, and black blast-  
craters were everywhere. The hedgehogs gazed at the damage in silence,   
the snow falling in endless curtains upon the two people who would   
never move again.  
Sonic stamped his feet and beat the wall with his fists. "Why   
them?" he yelled. "Why them?"  
Manic moved to the bodies and knelt. He bowed his head, then   
looked at Sonia and nodded. Sonia grabbed Slasher's arm. "The Prowers,"   
the hedgehog whispered. "They've helped us for years. Years."  
Slasher drew a sharp breath, and in her head there flashed a   
vision; a fox and a hedgehog, the fox a baby, the hedgehog scarcely   
older, holding the fox in his arms, sitting forlornly in the dark,   
rocking back and forth.  
She pulled away from Sonia and sniffed the snow. The area was   
thick with scent, and yes, there were three trails. Two belonged to   
the red foxes lying yonder, and the third--  
She loped down the alley, her heart filled with sorrow, urgency   
and pity. He was here somewhere. Ahead, that dumpster. She lifted the   
snowy lid and peered in. Empty. "Miles!" she called, sniffing the   
ground again. "Miles, come out, we're not going to hurt you. He's   
gone." She listened. No answer. "Miles!" she called again, then   
stopped and shook her head. What was she thinking? No kid in his   
right mind would approach a velociraptor.  
She dashed back, grabbed Sonic's arm and towed him down to the   
dumpster. "Call for Miles," she commanded, and backed away.  
Sonic looked at her in confusion, the tears still glistening on   
his face. "What?"  
"Call for Miles!" she ordered. "We've got to find him!"  
"Miles?" Sonic ventured, turning in place to look at the dingy   
alley. "It's just me, Sonic. I'm so sorry about--about--" His voice   
cracked. "Slash, the Prowers don't HAVE kids!"  
A sound. Sonic spun on his heel, raced to the dumpster and looked   
behind it.  
A moment later Manic and Sonia were there, too, exclaimed over   
the young fox in Sonic's arms. He couldn't have been older than five.   
His fur was greasy from the dumpster's side, his blue eyes were wide   
with sheer terror, and he had two tails instead of one. "Where's   
mommy?" he whimpered, clinging to Sonic. "Who are you? I want my   
mom!"  
The three hedgehogs looked at Slasher, their helplessness and   
sorrow shining in their eyes. "Let's get him home," she said, untying   
the blanket from around her neck, shaking the snow off it and draping   
it around the little fox. "It's all right, Miles," she said to the   
frightened face turned to her. "You're safe now."  
  
* * *  
  
"That's what Robotnik does to people he doesn't robotize," said   
Manic.  
Little Miles had eaten three bowls of cereal, drank two mugs of   
hot cocoa, and fallen asleep on the couch beside Sonic. None of them   
wanted to disturb him by moving him, and were talking in low voices.  
"How can that be?" asked Slasher from the floor, where she was   
preening her left wing. "When we left the fortress, Robotnik was   
still there. Couldn't SWAT-bots have done the job?"  
"They could have," said Sonia, holding a cup of cocoa in both   
hands. "But they usually aren't so efficient. Did you see the impact   
marks? Only a really big machine could do that."  
"Yeah," Sonic agreed. "Sleet and Dingo might have done it, too."  
"Naw," said Manic, shaking his head. "They aren't killers. They're   
more the snoop-and-treasure hunter kind."  
"Then what did it?" asked Sonia. "Two Freedom Fighter supporters   
are found murdered. The evidence points to Robotnik, but Robotnik was   
in the fortress when it happened. What are we supposed to think?"  
"If I didn't know better," said Slasher, scratching her lower   
jaw with a claw, "I'd say this was a Metal Sonic attack. But there's   
no Mecha here."  
"What if there is?" asked Manic, eyes lightning up. "We didn't   
know about a portal generator, and there was one. What if there's a   
robot we don't know about?"  
There was a moment of silence. Miles shifted positions on the   
couch and slept on.  
"If there is," said Sonic quietly, "he'll know."  
"What, you're going to ASK him?" asked Sonia, horrified. She   
looked at Slasher. "Isn't that psychologically damaging?"  
Slasher cocked her head at the fox. "It depends on how much he   
saw."  
"I wonder why he has two tails," said Sonic, watching as one of   
them twitched.   
"Maybe that's why we didn't know about him," offered Manic. "He's   
a freak, so they kept him secret."  
Sonia looked at Slasher and blinked. "How did you know about him?"  
Slasher looked at her with one eye. "Need you ask?"  
"How parallel are our universes, anyway?" asked Manic, folding   
his legs. "Maybe there's a time difference, too."  
"I'm not doing any fortune telling, if that's what you mean,"   
said Slasher through her feathers. "This world is too different."   
All the same, she had an uncomfortable feeling she knew what   
robot had murdered Tails's parents.  
  
* * *  
  
Miles didn't awaken until hours later, after they had received   
word that the Prowers had been given a quiet burial. It had been   
agreed that no one would mention this to their visitor that day.   
However, that evening, the fox looked at Sonic over a ham sandwich and   
said in perfectly lucid tones, "Mom and Dad are dead, aren't they?"  
Sonic looked at his brother and sister, then nodded. The fox   
looked at him, dry-eyed. "He was gonna kill me, too, wasn't he?"  
Sonic nodded and leaned forward. "Who was it?"  
Miles set down his sandwich and looked around. "I can draw him,   
I draw good."  
Sonia and Manic dashed in opposite directions and returned with   
a pencil and paper. They laid them before Miles, who shoved aside his   
plate, seized the pencil and began to draw. The hedgehogs and Slasher   
peered over his shoulder.  
The young fox drew the outline of a hedgehog, gave it a pair of   
square arms and feet, then added a pair of dark eye sockets. He looked   
at Sonic and handed him the picture. "This is what it looked like,   
sort of."  
Sonic eyed the picture, secretly surprised at how well Miles   
could draw. "What color was this robot?" he asked Miles, keeping an   
eye on Slasher.  
"Grey," said Miles, scanning the room for a color match. "Almost   
the same as those pipes up there."  
Slasher flinched and Sonic pounced on her. "Ah ha! You know what   
it is!"  
"Not exactly," Slasher hedged, backing away a step. "I never met   
it, myself ..."  
All eyes were on her now.  
"Spill," said Manic. "C'mon, Slash ..."  
"What's it called?" asked Sonia, a hairbrush frozen in one hand.  
"I believe," said Slasher, "that it's called Silver Sonic."  
"Cool!" said Sonic, puffing out his chest. "A robot named after   
me!"  
"No, it's not like that," said Slasher, shifting her wings. "The   
Mecha bots are very dangerous. Silver Sonic is Mecha-bot one."  
Of all the round eyes in the room, Miles's were the roundest.   
"How did you know that?"  
"I'm from a different dimension," said Slasher, suddenly weary   
of the conversation. How many times did she have to explain it?  
Sonic laid down the picture and ruffled the fox's hair. "Thanks   
for the info, Tails." Miles grinned.  
Manic stood up and stretched. "I'd better pass the word along to   
the resistance. Don't wait up for me." The green hedgehog trotted out   
of the cave, and in the distance a door clanged.  
"Hey sis, backup for me," said Sonic, pulling off his medallion.  
Sonia shrugged. "All right. I need to practice anyway. Something   
without drums." She pulled off her medallion, too, which changed into   
a fancy electric piano.  
"Wow!" exclaimed Miles. "How'd you do that?"  
Sonic changed his medallion into a guitar slowly, for the fox's   
benefit. "Hey Sonia, let's do The Call," he said. "That has a nice   
solo in it, and lotsa piano."  
"Okay," said Sonia, setting her instruments. Four beats later   
they were off, performing the first pretty music Slasher had heard   
them play. The piano made a difference, and without drums it was   
quite mellow. Miles dragged out a chair from the table and watched  
Sonic play, his eyes big with hero-worship.  
A little later Manic returned and requested "Freedom Battle", which   
was another instrumental with more drums. It wasn't loud at all, and   
Slasher wasn't forced to leave the room until Sonic suggested "The   
Destination is There", which turned out to be pop that thought it was   
heavy metal.  
Miles at through all of it, his troubles forgotten.  
  
* * *  
  
Slasher awoke the next morning to a soft, random plucking of   
guitar strings. She sat up on her mattress, stretched her six limbs,   
then walked into the main room. Sonic was seated on the couch in the   
corner. Miles sat beside him, Sonic's guitar in his lap, strumming it.   
They looked up as she approached. "Sonic's teaching me to play!"   
exclaimed the fox.  
Sonic looked sheepish. "He talked me into it. Didn't you, Tails?"  
"He calls me Tails," said Miles, grinning. "I like it."  
"That's a good name," Slasher agreed, putting on her most serious   
look. "It's really cool."  
Delighted, Tails continued to strum Sonic's guitar. Slasher   
snooped about and located breakfast. Commander Crunch again. It was a   
wonder these three survived at all. Maybe that was the secret of Sonic's   
speed. She ate it as fast as possible, her mind wandering to every   
topic but the food before her. Silver Sonic, the torris, Tails, the   
tiny portal she had to somehow fit through ...  
She didn't bring up the topic until Manic and Sonia had appeared   
and were munching their way through breakfast.   
"I'd like to try to go home today."  
The hedgehogs and fox looked up. "Do you have to?" asked Sonic.  
The raptor nodded. "I can't stay here, it's not my world."  
"How will you get through the portal?" asked Manic with his mouth   
full.  
Slasher considered. "If it works like the one I used to get here,   
all I'll have to do is stick my hand through, and it'll suck me in."   
If all goes well, she added to herself.  
There was silence for a moment, then Sonia spoke up. "There will   
have to be a diversion."  
"All I have to do is show myself," snickered Sonic. "Robotnik   
will be after me with guns blazing."  
"Yeah, but we need a plan," said Sonia, frowning. "We have to   
time it so Slasher will have enough time to get in and use the portal.   
It won't be easy."  
"What about that silver dude?" asked Sonic, taking the guitar   
from Tails and picking it.  
"Aw, he'll be somewhere else," said Manic. "You know how Egghead   
uses his robots, bam bam bam, one missions after the other."  
"We'll chance it, anyway," said Sonia, spooning the last of the   
milk from her bowl. "I don't think we should take Miles."  
The fox looked at her in indignation. "Why not?"  
"Because yesterday that robot almost killed you," said Sonia,   
gazing at him with the sternness of a mother. "It's not healthy."  
"But I want to go!" Tails whined. "I can take care of myself!"  
"And how old are you?" asked Manic in amusement.  
Tails stuck his nose in the air. "I'm almost six."  
"Royal children your age have nurses to watch over them," said   
Sonia, as if that settled the matter. "Sonic, if we go to the--"  
She talked over Tails, who argued that he didn't need a nurse, he   
was old enough to go, and he wasn't scared of that robot. Slasher   
looked on, chuckling to herself. She had seen many Freedom Fighter   
missions in her world planned this same way.  
She would not have laughed had she known what was to happen that   
day.  
  
* * *  
  
The sun glittered on the snow. Trees and buildings stood out   
against it like painted props, and cast deep blue shadows across the   
white expanse.  
Sonic ran down back streets and alleys, his eyes smarting in the   
frosty air, his breath puffing out of his lungs like steam from a   
train engine. His heart beat free as a bird's wings--he was going to   
have an adventure! Too bad Slasher had to leave, he was beginning to   
like her. Oh well, he had found Tails, so he would have something to   
remember her by. He had had a funny dream last night--he had dreamed   
he was running through a forest, trying to escape those flickers of   
fire he had seen yesterday. Then he tripped and fell, and that fire-  
creature spoke to him ... although now he had no recollection of what   
it had said. He hoped they wouldn't meet the torris again today.  
Sonic rounded a corner and slowed to a jog. There was the castle,   
blanketed in white, made beautiful in spite of itself. Just think--if   
things had gone differently, he would be living there as a prince,   
instead of in the basement of the waterworks as an outcast. He couldn't   
imagine it, and figured his present life was more interesting than   
living in a boring old castle.  
He jogged up to one of the SWAT-bots stationed at the palace   
entrance, which didn't notice him until he was right in front of it.   
He waved a hand in front of its eyes. "Heya Swatty, gone to sleep on   
the job again?" Then he was gone in a spray of snow. The chase was   
on.  
  
* * *  
  
Two blocks away, a van with tire chains ground toward the   
fortress, a green hedgehog in a trenchcoat at the wheel. "I'll let you   
out at the back gate," he said to Slasher. "We've already said goodbye   
and everything, so ..."  
"There's no need to say it again," said Slasher from the back of   
the van."  
Manic parked the van at the curb across the street from the   
castle. He clicked on the radio, leaned his elbows on the steering   
wheel, and waited. Behind him, Slasher and Tails waited, too.  
  
* * *  
  
Sonia stood in the shadow beside Robotnik's garage, a two-way   
radio in one hand. It was freezing here in the shade, but she could   
wait a little before she froze solid.  
There was a soft rattle, and the door beside her slid open. The   
pink hedgehog flattened herself against the icy wall as Robotnik's   
hovercraft flew out, armed on both sides with spinning blades like   
wheels, and a laser cannon mounted in front. As the machine of death   
roared into the cloudless sky, Sonia said into her radio, "He's out.   
Let's go."  
  
* * *  
  
Slasher bounded out of the van and streaked for the back door,   
the snow burning her warm feet. This was it, she was going home, this   
was the end. The doorknob turned under her claw, and she ducked into   
the warm, exhaust-scented darkness of the castle. Down the hall, one   
left, up the stairs ... she recited the directions to herself,   
bounding up the stairs four at a time, as heads turned and people   
gasped at the sight of a huge lizard among them. There was no need to   
worry about the three hedgehogs, she was as good as gone. Maybe the   
Sonic of her world, the one who was hurt, had made it back. How was she   
to know she was going to the correct dimension, anyway? There were   
probably controls somewhere--right now she had to get there.  
Fourth floor, north wing. Almost there. Panting now, she climbed   
the last flight of stairs and jogged along the carpeted hall.   
Robotnik's lab was just ahead. She paused outside the ornate double   
doors, peered up and down the corridor, and turned the knob.  
The door swung open, and Slasher stared into the faceted orange   
eyes of Silver Sonic.  
The dull steel robot looked at her with indifference and pushed   
past her. She stared after him as he stalked down the hall. Without a   
doubt he had been summoned for a hedgehog hunt. She closed the lab   
doors behind her, shaken. He had looked like Tails's drawing, but his   
eyes were solid orange, like a fly's.  
The raptor turned to face the portal generator, waiting in the   
corner. Could she leave now that she knew that her friends were in   
danger?  
Troubled, she examined the machine and discovered a lever marked   
"power". She flipped it and the generator hummed to life. She eyed the   
portal, which was focusing itself. Should she go or stay? Would Sonic   
know how to deal with a Mecha-bot? Silver Sonic ... she wished she   
could remember him. All she had seen had been some prototype drawings,   
and the twisted piece of metal that remained after Sonic finished the   
robot off. Sonic never talked about him, as he seemed to think that   
Metal Sonic was a bigger threat.  
A flicker of light. Slasher looked around and saw that they were   
all around her, floating sparkles like fireflies. "On no," she moaned   
to the empty room. She must have let them in when she opened the   
portal. She shrank toward the door. She had never feared anything like   
she feared the presence of the torris. Maybe they would go away ...  
It was a futile wish. A great bull flamed into existence between   
Slasher and the door, outlined in fiery orange and yellow, its hooves   
almost invisible blue. She froze and automatically stared at the floor,   
an animal gesture of submission.  
To her utter astonishment it spoke to her in the language of a   
velociraptor. "Why are you here, Swift of Foot and Sharp of Claw?"  
She had not heard her proper name in years. Slasher replied in   
the same language. "I wish to return to my home. I'm not supposed to   
be here."  
"As we have told your friend," replied the torram. "We will guide   
you home. But you have not finished your task."  
"My ... task?"  
"You were not carried here by accident. You have a task here,   
and it is not yet finished. The one called Silver Sonic is this moment   
planning to ambush your companions. They do not know how to combat a   
creature of his kind. This is your task."  
So, her worries were confirmed. She drew herself up and tightened   
her folded wings. "I accept."  
  
* * *  
  
Sonic flashed down a street, leaping the piles of snow left by a   
snowplow. The snow exploded in plumes at his heels. He couldn't outrun   
lasers, but he could dodge crosshairs, and he was having a blast. Half   
a block behind him flew Robotnik's hovercraft, the laser cannon on the   
nose smoking in the chilly air. Robotnik chuckled to himself. He had   
the cannon on auto, and was aiming it in Sonic's general direction.   
The hedgehog wouldn't expect an ambush, oh no. Once he was captured,   
torture would extract from him the locations of his brother and sister,   
and the resistance would be stamped out. It was a beautiful plan.  
  
* * *  
  
Sonia ran to the van, a pink and purple blot against the   
brilliant white of her surroundings. Manic rolled down his fogged   
window. "Heya sis, get in."  
She shook her head and leaned against the van, trying to catch   
her breath. "Silver Sonic," she gasped. "Silver Sonic just went after   
Sonic! I saw him!"  
Manic's face turned as green as his hair. "Get in," he said.   
"We'll cut him off."  
Sonia jumped in the passenger side and Manic threw the van into   
gear. Neither noticed little Miles crouched in the back, his eyes wide   
with terror.  
  
* * *  
  
Sonic was bored with the chase. He ducked down a side street,   
and thereby extended his life expectancy by five minutes. A steel robot   
flew into the street he had just left, scanning. Robotnik radioed   
Silver Sonic in annoyance to build a new targeting plan. Silver   
acknowledged and flew off at once. Robotnik backtracked, hoping to meet   
Sonic a block or two over.  
Behind them, Slasher skidded into the street on the slick   
pavement. Sonic had been here, she could see his tracks. She beat her   
wings and took to the air, a more hospitable element than the icy   
streets. She would have a better chance of spotting Sonic from above.  
  
* * *  
  
Sonic heard a strange sound. He looked around and nearly jumped   
out of his skin--coming after him through the air was a grey hedgehog   
with insect eyes, and it was coming fast. Sonic bolted, his light-  
hearted attitude chilling to fear. He could believe that thing had   
killed Tails's parents.  
A second later he glanced back and saw with amazement that the   
thing was keeping pace with him. He panicked. His first impulse was to   
zigzag, which he did, cutting through alleys and across yards. This   
tactic worked on SWAT-bots, but not Silver Sonic. Had Sonic kept his   
head, he could have outrun the robot, for Silver could not sustain high   
speeds for long. But the robot was highly maneuverable, and matched   
Sonic's winding path effortlessly.  
The blue hedgehog arrived on a highway. In the distance to the   
left, Robotnik's hovercraft appeared. To the right, perhaps three   
blocks away, the hedgehogs' van pulled into view. Relief surged into   
Sonic's heart, and he tore toward it, throwing mist from his flying   
heels. Behind him, Silver Sonic emerged and flew in silent pursuit.   
Robotnik saw them and threw on the speed.  
Above, Slasher surveyed the scene and scented disaster. She tucked   
her wings and dove earthward.  
  
* * *  
  
Tails flung open the van's rear doors and leaped out.   
"Miles!" yelled Sonia, jumping after him. "Miles, get back in   
that car!"  
"Sonia!" yelled Manic, glancing toward Sonic, who was flying down   
upon them with Silver Sonic at his heels. Not far behind them was   
Robotnik with the blades on the sides of his hovercraft beginning to   
turn.  
"This is gonna be bad," said Manic, white-knuckling the steering   
wheel.  
  
* * *  
  
Tails ran toward the oncoming Sonic with no idea what to do.   
Sonic hadn't seen him, as he had eyes only for the van. Tails looked at   
the Silver Sonic, who was lifting its arms to point at Sonic's head. It   
had done that right before Tails had closed his eyes. When he opened   
them, his parents were lying in the snow.  
He spun his tails and leaped into Sonic's path, arms outstretched.  
Sonic automatically lifted his arms to shield his face. Tails grabbed   
his and whisked him upward, his tails whirling like helicopter rotors.  
Silver Sonic lost his target. He twisted his head around to   
stare up at Sonic and Tails as he passed, jets on full throttle, and   
smashed into the side of the van.  
Sonia threw herself flat on the asphalt as Robotnik's hovercraft   
roared over, the blades a blue. They missed her by a hair.  
Slasher saw Sonia and Sonic were safe, but Manic was still in the   
van, which would be ripped to ribbons by Robotnik, who was busy   
rubbernecking at Sonic and Tails. Her downward rush carried her   
between the van and the hovercraft with only yards to spare. Silver   
Sonic was standing beside the van, stunned. He looked at her as she   
landed, and in a flash she saw the incredible danger she was in.  
"Manic!" cried Sonic as Robotnik's hovercraft tore into the van.   
He and Tails turned away as there was a terrific screech of metal.   
Sonia screamed, and there was a shriek of machinery grinding to a   
halt.   
Silence.  
Sonic and Tails looked.  
Somehow the van was intact. As they looked, Manic leaped out,   
fell on the pavement, then ran for the sidewalk, his flight instinct   
setting in somewhat after the fact. Robotnik's hovercraft was now   
resting on the ground, the blade on the left side bent out of shape.  
At the last instant, Slasher had lifted Silver Sonic by  
adrenaline alone, and shoved him into the gears of the blade.  
They found her slumped across the shredded remains of the   
robot, her right arm broken and useless.  
  
* * *  
  
There was a blank spot there in Slasher's memory. She didn't   
remember a thing until she was standing in Robotnik's lab again,   
ready to enter the portal, her arm resting in a makeshift sling. Where   
Robotnik was she had no idea, but Manic was there, helping her along.  
There were the torris again, waiting. She felt their gaze, and   
extended her left hand to the portal.  
All she remembered of the journey home was an image of the   
torris in one being, a being with wings spread and wings covering   
its body, and four faces--a lion, an eagle, a bull and a man. Yet,   
it too was a servant of something far more awesome.  
She came to in the medical hut in Knothole. She knew it by its   
smell; she was home. She opened her eyes and lifted her head. Her   
right arm was set in a white cast, and pained her as she moved it.   
Standing beside her was Manic and Spark, one grinning, the other   
looking like him, but stained and scarred by a hard life. Serena was   
there, too, a tomboy Sonia in dark purple. And there, as if to prove   
Slasher was in her correct dimension, was Sally.  
"Hi Slasher," said Sally, waving. "Can you understand me?"  
"Yes," Slasher replied. "Have I been out long?"  
"About eight hours," Sally replied, checking her watch. "I have   
some good news and bad news."  
"The good news is you'll make it," said Manic for her.  
"The bad news," said Sally, "is that Sonic hasn't returned."  
"Well ... what happened to me?" Slasher ventured. "Did I stop   
the blades?"  
Manic recounted the adventure for the benefit of all present, of   
how Slasher had saved him by jamming Silver Sonic into the gears of the   
hovercraft. He seemed to think the world of Slasher now that she had   
saved his life. He went on to tell of how Slasher had been in shock,   
and drifted at his side as he rushed her through the portal before   
Robotnik could get back to the castle. "Sonic wanted to come," added   
Manic, "but we figured it wouldn't be safe, seeing as there's a Sonic   
here."   
No one knew what to do with Manic, seeing as he came from another   
dimension and might disrupt their own. Manic wanted to stay in Knothole   
until the Sonic native to this dimension returned, and it was fortunate   
Slasher regained health in a few day's time. Manic, raised a thief,   
had a bad habit of stealing everything that wasn't nailed down.  
It was a relief when Slasher, arm resting in a sling, offered to   
take Manic to the warehouse that houses the portal. Slasher was worried   
it might open and there would be no one to greet Sonic.  
Near noon there came a loud sucking sound, and the portal opened   
without the machinery powering it. Sonic dropped through headfirst,   
struck the panelling beneath the frame and lay still. Slasher and   
Manic dashed to him as the portal closed. The blue hedgehog's spines   
were smoking, and his skin was red and blistered from extreme head.   
The cut on his head was almost healed, but he had a fresh bandage on   
his back. The ring on his finger glowed like a red ember. Whatever   
had happened to him had been one heck of an adventure.  
Slasher flew homeward, Manic steadying his alter-dimension   
brother on her back.  
  
* * *  
  
This brings us again to Sonic's waking in his hut, which has been   
recounted elsewhere. He made a rapid recovery, and in a few day's time   
was introduced to Manic. Sonic and Slasher swapped tales, and nobody   
could decide whose story was the weirdest. Both of them had met the   
Torris, the creatures of fire with higher interests than Mobius. Sonic   
and Slasher agreed that the sight of them scared them to death,   
something akin to meeting a ghost or a creature from another planet.   
Knuckles was very interested in Sonic's recounting of the Flying   
Fortress. After much questioning, he explained that the reason the   
torris had probably chosen to live on the topmost peak of the Flying   
Fortress was because the mountains were metal, and there was nothing   
for them to kindle to flame. He also speculated that alter-Mobius's   
hemispheres were reversed, like their own Mobius inverted, which would   
explain the early summer weather there.  
Sonic and Manic hit it off, and compared the differences in their   
worlds. It was with some regret they said goodbye, as Slasher used her   
ring to create a portal to send Manic home.   
Before he stepped through, the big raptor frisked him and   
stripped him of several pounds of small objects. Sheepish, Manic   
apologized, and in return was returned many of the things to take to   
his world as souvenirs.  
"Kick Robotnik a good one for me!" Sonic hollered as Manic walked   
toward the portal. "Say hi to Tails! We'll come visit sometime!"  
The green hedgehog waved, beaming, and hopped through the portal.  
  
* * *  
  
No one cared what had happened to the dictator Sonic in the alter-  
Mobius. Sonic assumed he had been killed, for he himself would have been   
if not for the Stone of Light. Maybe Robotnik's theory about the same   
life in two worlds was wrong. After all, there was the world Slasher   
had entered, which had little bearing on her own world.  
Dead or alive, Sonic never wanted to see the alter-Mobius again.   
Ever. However, he wouldn't mind seeing his alter self who was a   
guitarist and a prince into the bargain. "Maybe next summer," he   
thought. "Maybe next summer."  
  
The End  
  



	2. Battle Across Time

The Battle across Time

By K. M. Hollar

Sonic and related characters copyrighted by Sega. Sonic Underground copyrighted by DiC. Shalita copyrighted by Shayne Ranay. Used with permission.

Sing a song of sixpence  
A pocket full of rhyme;  
Three hedgehogs and a fox  
Lost in time.  


The robot lay on a table in the semi-darkness, motionless. The electricity that was its life-blood had not been supplied, and until then it would lie there, unthinking, waiting for a touch that would bring it to life. 

A figure appeared in the doorway, eyes shining in the darkness. It peered around, as if afraid of spies, then paced into the room. It stood over the robot on the table. The person extended a hand, and touched the robot's steel face. Then he crept toward the equipment on the wall. He reached for a lever and paused, hand in midair, looking over his shoulder at the robot on the table. His hand trembled, as if he had second thoughts; then his fingers curled around the lever's handle and yanked downward. A thousand lights lit on the control panel. A hum of power filled the room, and on the table, the robot's crimson eyes blazed to life. 

Ten miles away, another robot's eyes flickered on. 

This robot was missing both arms, which lay on the floor nearby in various stages of demolition. As its orange eyes lit, a green hedgehog wearing gloves and safety glasses gave a whoop. "Woohoo! Tails, I got it to come on!" 

A young orange fox darted into the room. "You did? How?" 

"I rerouted the power circuits," the green hedgehog replied. "This thing is sucking up nine hundred and eighty volts." 

Tails whistled. "No wonder normal voltage didn't work." The fox leaned out the door and hollered, "Sonic, come look! We got him to come on!" 

A blue hedgehog rocketed in. "No kidding! Can I use him as target practice?" 

"No way!" cried Manic, jumping between his brother and the robot on the workbench. "He's thrashed enough!" 

Sonic laughed. "Don't worry, he's not much of a target anyway. Where's his arms?" 

"Over here," said Tails from where he was crouched over the mangled objects that had once been robot limbs. "Look Sonic, I rebuilt this one, but I took out the machine gun." The fox wiggled the fingers of the arm at his friend. He picked up the other arm, which was a strip of metal with a nest of wires protruding from it. "I can't fix this one," he said, shaking his head. 

"About shot himself," added Manic. 

Sonic eyed the holes where Silver Sonic's arms should have been. "He'll sure look funny with only one arm." 

"Oh, he'll have both arms," said Tails, setting down the scrapped limb and reaching behind an enormous toolbox. "I built this one and put it back here to keep safe. What do you think?" 

Sonic looked at it. "Nice, but, uh, is it supposed to have claws like that?" 

"Oh, they retract," said Tails, working a mechanism inside the arm. The razor blades pulled back into the ends of the fingers. 

"Tails, he could kill somebody with those." 

Tails looked hurt. "I couldn't leave him unarmed! I took out his automatics and his rocket launcher, and he can't spindash--so what if he met a SWAT-bot?" 

Sonic shrugged. "Program him with Judo?" 

Silver Sonic's eyes winked out. Manic whirled. "Uh oh, I think we've got a short." He fumbled along the robot's length and unplugged the power cable. The generator in the corner died with a splutter. Manic looked at Tails and shrugged. "I guess it's back to the drawing board." 

Sonia looked in. "Here you are. Sonic, can I talk to you a minute?" 

"Sure, sis," said Sonic. It was no problem leaving Manic and Tails, who were discussing Silver Sonic in the strange language of mechanics. 

Sonic followed Sonia into the main cavern of their underground lair. "I need to show you something," she said, opening a door that led to the sewer. "Two somethings, really." 

Sonic followed her into the foul air of the pipe, along a walkway and up a ladder. Sonia slid aside a manhole cover with a grunt and clambered out into the sun. Sonic followed her. "Look," said the pink hedgehog, pointing at the sky. Sonic shaded his eyes and looked. 

Hanging in the sky was a misty round thing like a hot air balloon, a little smaller than the moon. "What is that?" asked Sonic, wishing he had brought some binoculars. 

Sonia, as if reading his mind, pulled a minuscule pair from her shirt pocket. Sonic took them and looked at the object. It was a metal-panelled ball, floating on a hoverjet. "Probably an ad blimp of Robotnik's," he said, returning the binoculars to Sonia. 

"I don't know," she said, biting her lip. "It might be a weapon, too." 

Sonic thought of the velociraptor who had appeared three months earlier, and shown them how lax they were on keeping up with their foe's plans. "Might be," he muttered. "What was the other thing you wanted to show me?" 

Sonia dug into a pocket of her jumpsuit and pulled out a scrap of paper. She handed it to Sonic, who saw the scribbled words and chords of a song. "Where'd you get this?" 

"That's the odd thing," said Sonia, lowering her voice, although the alley was deserted. "This morning I came out for a look around and saw that thing." She gestured to the hanging sphere. "As I was looking at it, this person in a cloak walked up to me." Her eyes became bright. "I think it was Mom, Sonic!" 

Sonic's eyes widened. Any news of their mother was good news, for she was the Queen and Robotnik had been trying to catch her for years. "What'd she say?" 

"Well," said Sonia, "she gave me that paper and said to learn to play that song. Then she told me that we shouldn't come above ground from seven o'clock tonight to seven tomorrow night. Her cloak was over her face the whole time, but I'm sure it was her." 

"A tipoff!" Sonic exclaimed. "Maybe the SWAT-bots are gonna search this sector!" 

"That's what I thought," said Sonia. "We can learn this song in the meantime." She walked back to the manhole. 

"What about that moon thingy?" asked Sonic, following her. 

Sonia looked up at it, eyes narrowed. "Maybe it's going to drop a bomb." 

* * *

It stalked along the dim corridor. Its red electronic eyes glowed in its metal face, blank and thoughtless, following a series of programmed commands. The ferocious intelligence had not yet developed in its matrix, but it was learning. It learned with every step it took, with every sound it heard, with every shape and shade it saw. 

It entered the wide, glassed-in room at the end of the hall, and focused on the figure in the captain's chair. It paced to him and stood at his elbow. 

Robotnik looked up at the steel blue robot and grinned. "Welcome to the world, Mecha-bot two! It seems those idiots Sleet and Dingo did something right for a change. Have a seat." 

The robot sat down in the copilot's chair, its arms and legs slowly flexing. It turned its head as Robotnik said, "I am your master, Doctor Robotnik. You are my second most brilliant creation, Mecha Bot Two. Your code name is Metal Sonic. You are outfitted with speech capability and a learning matrix, and I expect you to use them." 

Robotnik paused, and Metal Sonic said automatically, "Yes sir." Its voice was sharp and toneless. 

"You were created for one purpose," Robotnik continued, working at the control panel before him. "That purpose is to annihilate Sonic the Hedgehog. Do you understand?" 

Metal Sonic knew who Sonic and his family were, for images of them existed in his memory. "Affirmative," he said. "Self unit will destroy Sonic." 

"You are dismissed," said Robotnik, still working. "Return here at six forty-five this evening." 

The sleek blue robot rose from his seat and departed without a sound. 

* * *

"Sonic, could you turn down your amplifier?" Manic called, sticking his head out the workroom door. 

"Why, too soft?" Sonic shouted, turning up his amplifier another three notches. He hit a chord on his steel guitar that knocked dust from the ceiling. 

"No!" bellowed Manic. "You're making Tails sick!" 

"Oh," said Sonic, and turned down the volume. 

Tails slowly withdrew his hands from his ears. While the young fox could handle their concerts, a single guitar at maximum volume was too much for his sensitive ears. He called, "Thanks, Sonic." 

Sonic sat in a chair and picked his guitar, studying the song chords. "This isn't too hard," he commented to Sonia, who was practicing karate moves before a mirror nearby. 

"Have you read the words" she asked without turning. 

"Yeah, they're weird," said the blue hedgehog, picking up the sheet. "All that stuff about time flowing like a river. What do you think it means?" 

"Probably something deep," said Sonia, making several quick moves and kicking at the mirror. "Maybe it's about how time passes inside the soul or something." 

Sonic looked at his guitar. "Time passes pretty fast in mine. Do all songs have to have double meanings?" He strummed his way through the song again. Sonia didn't answer. She was watching the clock, balanced on one foot. "It's almost seven," she murmured. 

In the workroom, Tails was reconnecting Silver Sonic's left arm, while Manic worked on the right. "I hope that new stuff works," Manic was saying. "The SWAT-bots were sure mad when I stole it from the lab." 

"I want to know how we're going to power him," said Tails. "980 volts isn't exactly household current. How was he powered before?" 

"Some kind of battery," said Manic, splicing two wires together. "There wasn't much left of it." Silver Sonic had met his demise in the blades of a shredding machine. 

"This arm's on," said Tails, touching a voltage tester to the wires. "Everything works here. I'm going to put on the panelling now." 

"Hand me the tester," said Manic. "I'm almost done." 

The two were screwing on the dented strips of metal when the clock's hands struck seven o'clock. 

Silver Sonic's orange eyes flashed on. 

"Whoa," said Tails, stepping back. "What'd you plug him in for?" 

"Uh, I didn't," said Manic, holding up the end of the plug. "He's just ... on." 

They stared at the robot as it sat up and swivelled its head from side to side. "Greetings," it droned. 

Tails gaped. "How can it talk? It didn't have any audio output!" 

"I put some in," said Manic. He cleared his throat. "Um, hello, Silver." 

* * *

Metal Sonic had returned to the glassed-in room and was standing at Robotnik's elbow when his network connected. There was another robot there. They did not speak to each other, but each 'knew' of the other's presence. 

Robotnik was unaware of this, as Metal Sonic had not moved or made a sound. The doctor was chuckling to himself. "It is now one hour after sunset," he said, gesturing to the darkening sky. "My robotizer beam shall finish my job. It is the dawn of a new era, Metal Sonic. All living creatures in the city below us will be transformed into robots, and Mobitropolis will be my capital city of terror." He leaned back in his chair and laughed. "Did I say 'Mobitropolis'? You are witnessing the dawn of Robotropolis!" 

Still laughing, Robotnik inserted three keys into three slots on the control panel, flipped back a plexiglass panel, and pressed the button beneath. 

* * *

The grey hedgehog-robot looked at Manic, his orange fly-eyes glowing. "Please enter master identification." 

Manic looked at Tails and whispered, "Get Sonic and Sonia in here!" Tails dashed out and returned with them in tow. Manic signalled for them to keep quiet, then said, "I'm Manic Hedgehog, and this is Sonic." He pointed to Sonic, who waved. Silver Sonic turned his head and stared at him. Manic pointed at his sister. "This is Sonia." She waved, too. "This is Tails," concluded Manic, indicating the fox, who was holding the end of one tail in both hands, looking nervous. 

Silver Sonic gazed at each of them. "Tails. Sonia. Sonic. Manic. Registry saved." 

Suddenly there was a crash, and the walls quivered. Everyone caught their balance against the walls, the lights flickering. "Earthquake!" cried Tails in panic. He flung his arms around Sonic. 

"Quick, get outside!" Sonic yelled, but Sonia barred the way. As the noise of rattling doors and furniture stopped, she said, "It's after seven! Whatever Mom warned me about is happening! We can't go outside for twenty-four hours!" 

"Mom?" asked Manic, looking at his sister in surprise. 

There was no time for an explanation. Another shock hit, and the lights went out, plunging them into noisy, terrifying darkness. 

The quake lasted for some time. The hedgehogs and fox groped their way into the hall, where they huddled and tried to shield each other from falling objects. "My workroom will be thrashed!" Manic lamented over the noise. 

"Your workroom?" said Sonic over the strangle-hold Tails had on him. "What about the city, man? What's going on up there?" 

Finally, after twenty minutes of prolonged damage, the shaking shrank to a tiny vibration. Sonic lifted his head and blinked into the dark. It smelled dusty, and there was a hissing in the distance. "Is it over?" he ventured into the silence. 

Manic stirred beside him. "I hope so. Hang on, guys, I'm gonna find my flashlight." They listened to him crawl away in the dark, clinking among the gravel that had fallen from the ceiling. 

"I hope Mom's okay," came Sonia's worried voice. "Was it an atomic bomb?" 

"No," came Tails's voice. It was shrill and unsteady, as if the fox had not regained control of himself. He was still clinging to Sonic's arm like grim death. "If we were close enough to ground zero to feel the quake, we'd be toast." 

A beam of light appeared, and Manic shown it around his workroom, visible through the doorway. The contents of all the shelves were now in the floor. Behind him appeared a pair of orange eyes, and clanking footsteps shuffled among the litter. 

"Hi Silver, you okay?" asked Manic glumly. 

"Self unit is undamaged," droned the robot's voice. 

Sonic stood up, prying Tails's fingers off his arm. "How does he have power?" 

"I donno," Manic called through the doorway. "He came on before the quake hit." He stepped into the hall, Silver Sonic clanking behind him. "We'd better access the damage." 

The four explored their dark lair, Silver Sonic following them like a great cold dog. A pipe in the big cave had burst and was spewing water. Sonic and Manic shut it off and examined the rest of the pipes, but there was no more damage. Aside from knocking their belongings in the floor and shaking dirt out of the ceiling, the earthquake hadn't hurt much. Sonia said little. She listened to the low key rumble that had not yet subsided, and bit her lip. She was certain something horrible had happened. 

* * *

The night passed in a jumble of aftershocks. The group gathered blankets from their beds and slept under the table. Silver Sonic stationed himself nearby, oblivious to the dirt plinking on his hull. As their eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, they found that the robot's eyes cast enough light to illuminate part of the cave. This was helpful when a shock hit and they awoke to noisy confusion. 

At last Sonic crawled out of the blankets and sat on the dusty floor beside the table. "Silver, what time is it?" he whispered. 

"Thursday, five forty-three AM and seventeen seconds," replied the robot in a loud monotone. 

"Shhh!" Sonic hissed. "Keep it down!" 

"Affirmative," said Silver in a lower volume. 

Sonic pulled on his shoes and tiptoed around the cave, checking for damage. The van containing the computer equipment was covered in dirt, but as far as he could see it was unharmed. He wished the waterworks basement had windows, but after a moment's consideration, decided it was better it didn't. Radiation might get in. 

He tiptoed back and sat down on the couch. Silver Sonic watched him, but did not leave his post beside the others. "Do you know what happened?" whispered Sonic, wanting to make conversation. 

"Affirmative," the robot said quietly. "The Death Egg has fired." 

Sonic stared at the glowing orange eyes. "What's that?" 

Silver Sonic stared back for a long moment. "The Death Egg is a battleship with two doomsday weapons. The operation of E2 is unknown, but E1 has been fired. Would you like the statistics of E1?" 

"No, just tell me what it did." 

"Affirmative. E1 is nicknamed the Robotizer Beam. It will fire ten times in twenty-four hours, and anyone within a mile of the impact zone will be robotized." 

Sonic forced a smile. "You're kidding, right?" 

"Self-unit does not understand. Define 'kidding'." 

"Joking, not telling the truth." 

Silver Sonic didn't answer for a moment, then said, "Self-unit was not kidding." 

"I," said Sonic. "Not 'self-unit'. 'I'." 

"I was not kidding," the robot repeated. 

Sonic leaned back on the couch and ran both hands through his rumpled spines. The Death Egg ... a robotizer beam ... it boggled his mind. How could a robotizer beam be so powerful? That is, if Silver Sonic knew what he was talking about. 

Little did he know that several miles off, aboard the floating sphere called the Death Egg, Mecha Bot 2 was recording two new items of information: the meaning of 'kidding' and that one said "I" instead of "self-unit". 

* * *

The day passed much as the night had. There were no working lights, and there wasn't enough fuel to run the generator. In the meantime, Sonic and Tails dug out a propane lantern. They sat around it in the main cave, munching crackers and waiting for the next earthquake. 

Silver Sonic repeated his information about the Death Egg and the robotizer beam. This was met with skepticism, especially on Manic's part. "You can't do that," he said, waving a hand. "Where would the metal and programming come from?" 

Sonia pulled out the scribbled song and laid it on the table. "We need to learn this song," she said, lifting her medallion. "It might form a derobotizer, who knows?" 

"With a song?" asked Tails, raising an eyebrow. 

"You never know," said Sonic, transforming his medallion into a guitar. "Our instruments have weird powers sometimes. Man, I miss my amplifier." He tossed a longing glance at the box in the corner. 

"It'll sure sound dry," agreed Manic, as his medallion changed into a drumset. 

Sonia changed hers into an electric piano, which functioned as a normal piano without electricity. 

Sonic had already practiced his portion of the song, but Sonia had to learn it before she could perform it. Manic made note of the tempo and time notation, and rocked off by himself, paying no attention to the others' practice. Silver Sonic watched them without a word. 

Their first effort at performing the song went well, although Sonia made mistakes and Sonic dropped his pick mid-song. It was a simple tune with four minor chords. Tails stood over the song sheet and whispered the words as they played. "Streaming, rippling and flowing, Time is a river. Ever surging, changing and churning, Time is a river. Take me there, take me deep, what you sow you shall reap, Time is a river, set sail." 

Each hour seemed three hours long, and seven PM looked as if it would never arrive. Every fifteen minutes or so, someone asked Silver Sonic for the time. He gave it each time, as automatic as a computer. 

The only person who didn't appear fond of the robot was Tails. He had liked Silver Sonic when the robot was a machine to tinker with, but now the machine was up and running, Tails was reminded of who had murdered his parents. Every time Silver Sonic turned his head, Tails saw the robot stalking toward his mother and father, raising his arms to chest level. The ear-splitting rattle of a chaingun, the thuds of two bodies hitting the snow ... Try as he might, Tails couldn't shake that horrible memory. 

* * *

"It's seven!" shrieked Sonia. 

Sonic looked at her in disgust. "Don't scream, we heard you." 

"Although I may never hear anything else," said Manic, rubbing an ear. 

"Well?" asked Tails. "Are we going outside or what?" 

The group stampeded for the sewer door, jostled down the walkway, and crowded the ladder. Sonic shoved aside the manhole and scrambled out. Sonia, Manic and Tails followed him. Silver Sonic remained in the sewer, puzzled by the ladder. 

The Death Egg, no longer a hazy object high in the sky, hovered over the city. It was an ominous black shape that blotted out the evening sky to the east. "It looks like a moon!" exclaimed Tails. 

"That's no moon," replied Sonic, staring. "It's a battlestation." 

"It's too big to be a battlestation!" said Manic. "It's more like a ... a ..." He could not think what. 

"I want to see if it really fired a robotizer beam," said Sonia, striding to the end of the alley. "None of the buildings are tore up or--" She halted in midsentence, the spines on her back bristling. Sonic dashed to her side. "I guess it was a robotizer beam," he muttered. 

Pacing about the street were robotized Mobians. They moved in jerks, once in a while bumping into walls or parked vehicles. None spoke, but none halted--there was a desperation about them. They were suffering. 

Sonic felt Tails grab his hand. Sonic gave it a reassuring squeeze. 

"Let's go for a drive," said Manic. "Maybe only this area was hit." It was an empty hope. 

Driving about the city was depressing. Robotized people were everywhere. Cars were abandoned on the roadsides. Aside from a little earthquake damage to the buildings here and there, there was nothing wrong--no looters, no fleeing survivors. The only survivors were themselves. 

Silver Sonic had accompanied them, and watched their surroundings go by. As Manic was turning the van around (Sonic hadn't the heart to drive), the robot remarked, "It was a noble event." 

They all stared at him, but Tails spoke first. "What do you mean, a noble event? Those are people out there!" 

Silver Sonic looked at him. "It is a technological breakthrough." 

"Oh yeah?" said Tails, leaning in the robot's face. "What good is technology if it's used to hurt people? If not for a warning, we would look like that!" He pointed at a lone robot figure on the sidewalk outside, a look of terror forever frozen on its robot face. 

No one spoke until they neared their hideout. Then Silver Sonic murmured, "Robotization is ... wrong." 

Up in the sky, sitting in a corner, a blue robot with red eyes stared at the floor. At first Metal Sonic had been pleased the robotizer beam had succeeded, and relayed this pleasure to his counterpart. But Silver Sonic transmitted Tails's outburst to him. Metal Sonic knew that Silver Sonic's registry was set to his enemies, but because of Silver Sonic's filtering, Metal Sonic did not understand they were his enemies. Indeed, they had already taught the robots how to act. Metal Sonic now understood that one did not speak loudly while masters were sleeping. 

But this was the first thing Metal Sonic had learned that went against his programming. Robotization of a city was wrong? How could that be? It was a judicious use of technology. 

On the other end of the network, Silver Sonic was also thinking it through. Unlike Metal Sonic, however, his learning matrix overwrote his code with the decision that robotization was bad. It was the first code difference the robots had had, and it would not be the last. 

* * *

There was no electricity. The group sat on couches and chairs, staring at the propane lantern on the table. Tails huddled against Sonic, tears standing in his eyes. Silver Sonic stood in the corner, disgraced. 

Manic broke the silence. "Anybody want a song?" 

His siblings looked at him as if they couldn't believe he had spoken. 

"A song?" asked Sonia. "Why would we want to play anything?" 

"Maybe we should," said Sonic, looking at the silent fox beside him. "It might cheer us up. But I don't want to play that time song." 

"Yeah," said Manic, as his medallion changed into a drumset. "Let's play something with heart. Let's do Don't Worry!" 

Sonia's mouth twisted in disgust, but she pulled out her piano. Sonic stood up, and the trio broke into song. It was a bright, cheerful song with a catchy chorus. For a while the shadows about them seemed less, and the horror of what they had seen faded. 

They played several more songs, and with light spirits, Manic said, "Let's try that time song again." 

No sooner had they struck the first chord than the room became pale and ghostly. The only solid things were themselves. Sonic's hands slipped on the strings. "What in the heck--?" 

At once the world returned to normal. 

"Did you see that?" Sonic yelped. 

"Yeah!" said Manic. "What was it?" 

"Maybe a radiation shockwave," said Tails. 

"Maybe we shouldn't play this song," said Sonia. 

"No, let's try it again," said Manic. "There's something weird about it. Nobody stop playing until I say." 

They began to play again. The world faded like smoke around them. As they played, they saw an earthquake hit--in reverse. Rocks and dust flew up into the ceiling. Then they saw the ghosts of themselves running around the cave backward, as if they were rewinding a movie. More earthquakes hit, and the debris returned to its original place in the roof. Suddenly the lights came back on, and their ghost selves retreated to the back room. Tails looked at Silver Sonic and called over the noise, "What time is it?" 

The robot replied, "Tuesday, five twenty-six PM." 

"Keep playing!" Manic yelled. "Don't stop!" 

Sonia and Sonic kept playing, although both had gone white. The time Silver had announced was of the day before the Death Egg had fired. 

The lights went off and came on as the night went by. They had now travelled back in time three days. Manic hardly watched his drums as he played, peering at the room around them, sweat running down his muzzle. Sonic and Sonia watched him, their fingers quite familiar with the song. Another day passed, then another. On the morning of the seventh day, Manic yelled, "Stop!" 

The music died, and the cave came into focus. "The time is Thursday, seven ten AM," said Silver Sonic without being asked. 

"We're still in bed," whispered Sonic. "We've got to get out of here before we see us!" As they dashed for the sewer, Sonic muttered, "That was the weirdest thing I've ever said in my life." 

Two minutes later the four of them hauled Silver Sonic out of the manhole in the morning sunlight. "So what do we do?" asked Sonia as her brothers replaced the manhole cover. "I take it we're in the past?" 

"Yeah!" said Sonic, dusting off his hands. "Didn't you see it? We went back through last week! I mean, this week. I mean, you know." 

"We could have gone farther," said Manic. "I stopped us here, because now we have a week to stop the Death Egg." 

"Can we go forward?" asked Tails, twisting his tails together. "What if we're stuck here?" 

"Don't be silly," said Sonia with mock patience. "It's only a week." 

Silver Sonic, meanwhile, was peering around the alley. "We must not be seen," he said. 

The hedgehogs and fox looked at him. "What?" 

"We must not be seen," the robot repeated. "The consequences of time travel are enormous. We must travel in disguise." 

* * *

"So much for that," said Sonic as the group stepped out of a clothing shop. They were cloaked and hooded with long black robes. "Look at me! I'm not a prince--I'm an Emperor!" 

"An idiot, you mean," snapped Sonia. "Keep it down! It's not like the SWAT-bots have forgotten us." 

Manic adjusted the hood over Silver Sonic's face to hide the glowing orange eyes. "What do we do now?" 

"We find the Death Egg and nail that Eggman!" said Sonic, holding up a fist. 

"Sure, simple," said Sonia. "Where are we going to look, might I ask?" 

"The resistance, of course," said Manic, brushing his forelock under his hood. "Somebody will know what's up. And if they don't, we can warn 'em." 

"Don't swish your tails so much," said Sonic to the fox. "They're coming out of your robe." 

Although the trio knew their way about the city, it was tedious having to walk across town. They couldn't hail a cab, and Sonic couldn't use his super speed for fear of discovery. The sight of five cloaked and hooded figures did not pass unnoticed. Passersby stared and pointed, sometimes laughing. Sonic and Manic didn't mind this much, but Sonia muttered under her breath whenever someone's eyebrows lifted. Tails didn't notice the unwanted attention--he was watching Silver Sonic over his shoulder. 

It was near noon when they made their way down a narrow street in the bad part of town. Manic, who was raised there, led them toward a boarded-up service station. "Wait here," he said, as they stepped beneath the sagging awning. "Come when I whistle." He lifted aside the door, and stepped into the darkness inside. The others waited, listening to the traffic noise. In the distance the popping of gunshots rang out, and a few minutes later, an army of squad cars screeched by. Tails gave Sonic a look that said, "What have we gotten ourselves into?" Sonic smiled to reassure him, but he was far from comfortable. 

A soft whistle came from inside the building. The four were relieved to step inside. 

The inside of the gas station was empty, and layers of graffiti covered the walls. Manic was standing in the shadows, and someone was with him. He waved them closer. "Guys, this is Shalita, a member of the resistance. Silver, this is a friend, okay?" 

"Acknowledge," droned the robot. 

Shalita was a white hedgehog with long blonde spines. She was wearing jeans, boots and a t-shirt with a cloak wrapped around her. The reason for this was revealed when she shook their hands--a sword was buckled to her left side and a blaster hung at her right. "Hi," she said. "You are all members of the resistance?" Her eyes strayed to Silver Sonic's hooded figure. 

"Yeah, this is our robot," said Manic, trying to sound off-hand. "He's safe. We need information on Robotnik." 

"How do I know you're not spies?" she asked. 

Sonic rolled his eyes and flipped back his hood. "Look," he said, holding out his medallion. "I'm Sonic, this is Sonia, and that's Manic." They, too held out their medallions, and Shalita's eyes widened. "Why didn't you say you were the royal triplets?" 

"And I'm Tails," said the fox, determined not to be forgotten. 

Shalita held up a hand. "Okay, okay, I'll take you to headquarters. Put your hoods on and follow me." She led them out the door, down the street and into a vacant lot filled with rotting car parts. In a corner, screened by debris, the white hedgehog heaved aside a sheet of metal to reveal a tunnel entrance. They climbed into it, and Shalita led them into the darkness. 

Presently they came to a rise in the tunnel, and Shalita pushed open a trapdoor in the roof. They climbed out and found themselves in a room with shuttered windows and no doors. "Secret room," said Shalita as they entered. "Keep quiet." 

She walked to the wall, slid aside a section and called into the space beyond. A second later a female wolf stepped in. She was wearing the stained apron of a butcher--they were in the back room of a grocery store. She shook hands with a strong, calloused paw. "I'm Lupe," she said. "You need information about Robotnik?" 

"Yes," said Sonic, pulling back his hood. "We're in a bit of trouble. Egghead is going to launch a superweapon, but we don't know where it is. Have you heard of something called the Death Egg?" 

The wolf gazed at him for a moment. "No," she said, "but we do know that Robotnik has had something under construction for a long time. Its codename is project Black Hole, and it's housed in zone three of the Launch Base." 

"There's a zone three?" asked Manic. "Where?" 

"The very center," replied Lupe. "Extremely high security. None of us have managed to get through. How did you learn about it?" 

"None of your beeswax," said Sonia. "We have our sources, too. We just needed to know where it is." 

Shalita and Lupe gave the pink hedgehog an icy look. 

Sonic flinched on his sister's behalf. "Thanks for the info, you won't regret it. C'mon, Sonia--" He shoved his sister through the trapdoor, leaving Manic to smooth things over. 

"Why did you have to be so rude?" whispered Sonic as he guided his sister down the passage. 

"I don't like that Shalita girl," Sonia hissed back. "She kept looking at you funny, and I don't think it's because you're a prince!" 

Sonic grinned. "Really?" 

"I know her kind, Sonic! We haven't seen the last of her." 

They were standing outside when Tails, Silver Sonic and Manic arrived. Manic's face was red. "Sonia!" he snarled. "That was Lupe, one of the resistance leaders! She's trying to get YOU back on the throne, and you came off as a nitpicking, whiny beast!" 

Sonia stuck her nose in the air. "You didn't see that girl making eyes at our brother." 

There would have been a tremendous fight, but Silver Sonic interrupted them. "He is here." 

They looked at him. "Who is here?" asked Tails. 

"Mecha bot two," said Silver Sonic, his orange eyes shining under his hood. "He came with us. He is bewildered. Permission to give him our location?" 

"Mecha bot TWO?" said Sonic, mouth dropping open. "That was the name of the really mean robot Slasher told us about!" 

Manic faced the robot. "Is he under orders to kill us?" 

"Affirmative," said Silver Sonic. 

"And you want to tell him where we are?" cried Sonia. "Are you nuts?" 

"He will not harm you," said Silver Sonic. "A robot cannot attack the masters of another." 

"Not unless he feels like it," said Tails. "Let's get out of here." 

They turned to leave, but Silver Sonic's words stopped them in their tracks. "If he finds us on his own, he will destroy us." 

They looked at each other and turned back. "Silver," said Sonic, "are you sure?" 

"Quite." It may have been his imagination, but Silver Sonic's voice seemed chilly. 

Sonic looked at his brother. "Your baby's gonna kill us." 

Manic looked pained. "It's not my fault, Eggman built them that way." Then, before anyone could say a thing, Manic added, "Silver, permission granted." 

"What?" shrieked Sonia. "Manic!" 

"Let's go find the Death Egg," said the green hedgehog, unperturbed. 

As they dashed down the street, Shalita poked her head out of the tunnel mouth. She had overheard the last half of their conversation, and decided to go with them. 

* * *

Metal Sonic stood in the shadows between two garbage cans, claws dangling at his sides, red eyes extinguished. He was receiving Silver Sonic's beacon, but couldn't respond. He had been yanked to a time before the Death Egg was aloft, thus leaving him suspended five hundred feet in the air. He saved himself from a killing fall by igniting his hoverjets, landing in a non-robotized city. It was some time before he understood he was a week in the past. And now Metal Sonic was dealing with two new feelings his matrix had learned--confusion and fear. It was seven days until he would be activated, so he could not go to Robotnik for help. He was on his own, and at the moment, too terrified to venture out of hiding. 

"I cannot come," he told Silver Sonic over the network. "I am afraid of harm. I am in a different time." 

"I am, also," replied Silver. "It is not so dangerous. Come to us, and do not harm my masters." 

"But I can't come!" cried Mecha. "Something will happen to me! I am lost in an alien location!" 

"Come off it," said Silver, sounding irritated. "Nothing will happen to you. Come find us when you get the nerve." 

Whatever "nerve" was, Metal Sonic did not have much of it. He cowered in his corner and listened to the network. 

* * *

The Launch Base was outside the Mobitropolis city limits, built over a marshy area no one had wanted to farm. It was three miles from the highway, so all anyone could see from the road was a hazy structure in the distance. 

Penetrating the base was easier said then done. It was surrounded by electrified fences and killer robots that doubled as guard and guard dog. The three hedgehogs and fox were run off twice before rejoining Silver Sonic at a safe distance, near a small service road. 

"I could fly in," said Tails, "but I don't know how that could help." 

"Silver, can you open the fence for us?" asked Manic. 

"Negative," replied the robot. "The frequencies here are incompatible with my own." 

"Where there's a will," said Sonic, staring at the fences, "there's a way. Tails, you couldn't lift me, could you?" 

"I could try," said the fox. He handed his cloak to Sonia, and spun his tails. Sonic threw off his cloak, too, and grabbed Tails's outstretched hands. The fox hauled the hedgehog into the air. "What'd you eat for breakfast?" Tails gasped. "Cement?" 

"Nothing, actually," said Sonic. "Last thing I ate was dinner. Don't drop me!" 

Tails sagged toward the ground, then landed, panting. "I might get you over the fence," he puffed, "but no higher. You weigh a ton!" 

"Better lay off the chilidogs, bro," Manic grinned. 

"I haven't had a chilidog since you stole the entire surplus of Fruit Rings cereal," Sonic retorted. "Two months ago." 

"That would explain it," said Sonia, who by this time would rather starve. 

Sonic made a face at Sonia and slunk toward the electric fence, Tails at his heels. Manic and Sonia watched them go, squinting at the guard robots. Silver Sonic, however, turned his head and peered toward the service road. His sensors had detected motion. Unknown to his masters, his orange eyes went green as infrared activated. It was a white hedgehog, lying flat on the ground, watching them. The razor-claws silently slid out of the fingertips of his right hand, before he recognized Shalita. Disappointed, he retracted his claws and returned to watching Sonic and Tails, eyes cycling to orange. He did not think to tell Manic and Sonia about Shalita's presence--after all, she was a friend. 

Shalita saw the robot look in her direction, but as he looked away again, she figured he hadn't seen her. She peered toward Sonia and Tails, who were running toward the fence. What did they think they were doing? Didn't they know those fences were electrified? She pressed a hand to her mouth. Tails's tails were spinning, and he was flying up into the air with Sonic! She watched in suspense until they cleared the fence and landed on the inside, where they dashed out of sight. "He's a Kitsune!" the hedgehog thought to herself. "I don't believe it! Kitsunes are extinct!" 

It was an hour before Sonic and Tails reappeared, flew over the fence and dashed to the waiting hedgehogs and robot. "It's in there, all right," said Sonic between breaths. "We had to hop a couple fences, but we got close enough to see it. Did you know it has Robotnik's face on the side?" 

"And the eyes are guns!" Tails burst in. "Like in a comic book or something!" 

"Great, how do we stop it?" asked Manic. "Is there a self-destruct switch?" 

"No such luck," said Sonic. "The thing is armored, man. It'd take a nuke to blow it." He took his cloak from Sonia, put it on and added, "Let's get lost. I don't want to get toasted by those robots." 

They trotted toward the highway, keeping to the right of the service road, where some brush screened them from sight. Shalita was waiting for them when they reached the highway, panting as if she had run a long way. Sonia gave her a withering glare. 

"What'd you see?" the white hedgehog asked, motioning toward the distant facility. 

"Lotsa stuff," Sonic replied. "The Death Egg's there, all right. What are you doing here, Shal?" 

Shalita mumbled something about passing by on business, then added, "You didn't say that your friend was a Kitsune." 

The triplets and Tails looked startled. "Who is?" asked Manic. 

Shalita pointed at the fox. "He's got two tails, right?" 

Tails tucked them under his robe and looked nervous. "What's a Kitsune?" 

Shalita's eyes narrowed, and she took a step toward him. "You're not a fox at all, you little monster. You're not even a Mobian!" 

Tails shrank behind Sonic, eyes wide. Sonic and Manic glared at Shalita, but Sonia jumped in her face. "How dare you say that to Tails? He's got a birth defect, okay? You don't go shoving superstitious mumbo-jumbo down a little kid's throat!" 

She pushed Shalita, who pushed back and drew her sword. The blade glinted like ice, for it was made of crystal. "You'd better keep your hands to yourself, princess," Shalita snarled, gripping the weapon in both hands. "I'm not the one who buddies around with monsters and killer robots!" 

Sonia grabbed her medallion, but her brothers pulled her away from Shalita. "Cool it!" Sonic hissed. "You're not making things any better!" He turned to Shalita. "Insulting my friends won't get you anywhere," he said coldly. For an instant he was every inch a prince. "Go find us some info on the Death Egg. I want it by tomorrow." 

Shalita opened her mouth to protest, thought better of it, and turned to leave. 

They watched her mount a hoverbike and coast away down the road. Tails's hand slipped into Sonic's, and Sonic felt the fox's hand was icy. 

* * *

It was still cold when they entered an old shack not far from their underground safehouse. The shack was an alternate hideout, and none of them had used it in weeks. This meant that their past selves wouldn't use it, either. 

Tails sat down in a corner and cradled his head in his hands while the hedgehogs snooped around for food. After a while the fox lifted his head. He was dry-eyed, but pale under his fur. "Sonic, what's a Kitsune?" 

"It's a ... well, it's ..." Sonic looked to his siblings for help. Manic and Sonia looked at each other, at a loss. 

To their surprise, Silver Sonic crossed the room and knelt beside Tails. "The dangerous girl was wrong," said the robot to the fox, who resisted the urge to shrink away. "A Kitsune is a recessive gene in some varieties of foxes. They are born with two or more tails, and have unusual abilities. They are Mobians, however, unlike local folklore, which claims that Kitsunes are evil spirits in animal form. This legend was begun when five Kitsunes gathered together and went on a killing spree, three hundred years ago." 

Tails looked into the robot's orange faceted eyes, and whispered something the others couldn't hear. The robot looked at him in silence for a long time. At last he said, "I was ... following orders." He moved to the corner and stood with his back to the room. 

"What'd you ask?" asked Sonic, lifting an eyebrow. 

Tails gazed at the robot's back. "I asked him why he murdered Mom and Dad." 

The hedgehogs and fox ate lunch and discussed their next move, but Silver Sonic did not hear them. He was holding a conversation of his own. 

"I followed orders," he told Metal Sonic. "The orders were to kill the three foxes. I felled two, but one escaped. The one who escaped is Tails. Tails is now one of my masters. Who was wrong? My previous master? Or my current ones?" 

"Dr. Robotnik is all-knowing," said Metal Sonic. "He could not command you to do such a thing if it were not right." 

"But he also robotized thousands of innocent people," Silver argued. "And that is wrong. If he makes one command that is wrong, couldn't he make others?" 

"Right and wrong are a matter of opinion, Mecha bot one. What is right for me may not be right for you." 

"That is incorrect reasoning," said Silver. "An action cannot be right and wrong at the same time. That is our most basic programming. If following an order to kill is right, I would have killed one of my masters. If it is wrong, then ..." He trailed off. 

"Then what?" prompted Metal Sonic. "Then you have spilled innocent blood?" 

"Affirmative," said Silver. "And it is wrong to harm someone without a cause. That is justice." 

"But there is a cause," said Metal Sonic. "Can a ruler not destroy his enemies?" 

"Data unavailable," said Silver Sonic, which was his way of saying "I don't know". "I need more information about both sides before I decide which is the enemy." It was difficult to change the complex thought patterns he had woven about the idea that robotization and mass slaughter were right. What course of action should he take? A single possibility offered itself out of his deepening mind. Apologize to Tails. 

"I think we should try to find Mom," Sonia was saying. "I mean, where else did she get the song?" 

"Wait," said Sonic. "If Mom gave us the song, because we gave the song to her, so she gave us the song--where did the song COME from?" 

"Don't," said Manic, making a face. "It makes my brain hurt." 

"We'll need to find her, though," said Sonia, clasping her fingers together. "That'll be tough, because we don't know where she lives." 

"Do you have a Dad?" asked Tails, entering the conversation for the first time. 

"Robotnik killed him," said Manic, looking glum. "Right before the takeover." 

"Uncle Chuck had a picture of him," said Sonic, spines drooping. "He said he'd tell me about Dad someday, but he got robotized." 

"You bet he'd fix things if he were still alive," said Sonia, eyes glinting. "He'd use Egghead's mustache to sweep the floor!" 

Tails was grinning at this prospect when he felt a touch on his shoulder. He turned to find Silver Sonic at his elbow. "Please accept my apologies," droned the robot. "I have processed the topic, and it was wrong for me to destroy your parents. If there is anything I can do to atone, please inform me." Tails looked at the others in shock. 

"Whoa," said Manic, staring. "He just apologized! That matrix chip I swiped must have been something powerful!" 

"I'll let you know," said Tails weakly. 

Silver returned to his corner, this time facing into the room. 

"Hey!" said Sonic, eyes lighting up. "What if we went back in time and kept Dad from getting killed? We wouldn't be in this mess!" 

"We'd be a bunch of prissies living in a palace," Manic retorted. "Besides, we don't know how to go forwards in time, just back. It's be nice if we got stuck ten years in the past." 

"We could go back a few months and save mine," said Tails without looking up. 

"Same problem," said Manic, ever the sensible one. "We'd be stuck two months in the past, and if we did keep Silver from carrying out his orders, couldn't he kill one of us instead?" 

Everyone sighed. 

Sonia picked up a scrap of paper and drew seven columns on it with a nub of pencil. "Guys, start thinking. I'm making a calender of where we were all this week." 

"Great idea, sis," said Sonic. 

* * *

Shalita sat in the back booth of a restaurant, sucking at a strawberry milkshake and staring at the wall. She was angry and humiliated--angry that Sonia had pushed her around, and humiliated at being told off by a cute guy like Sonic. So she didn't know much about Kitsunes. Everyone thought they were bad, didn't they? She could be excused for making a mistake. She stirred the milkshake with the straw, spilling some on the table, and resumed drinking. "Go get us some info on the Death Egg." She hated being told what to do. Go here, do that, fetch, carry. See if she did anything for those stuck up royal pains. They didn't deserve her help. Maybe she would help Sonic, but those other two ... 

She was so deep in her stormy thoughts she didn't notice the figure until he slid into the booth across from her. She sat up. "What do you think you're doing?" 

"Hush," said a low male voice. He was wearing a deep purple hood and cloak, and his face was hidden in shadow. 

"Sonic?" Shalita ventured. 

"No," said the figure. "I assume you've met the Sonic Underground?" 

"Yeah," said Shalita. One hand slipped to her pistol. If it was Sleet or Dingo, she would blow his head off. 

"You are a member of the resistance, correct?" 

"Who wants to know?" 

"I do," said the figure, leaning forward. "I have something for the royal triplets, and I need a loyal member of the resistance to take it to them." 

Shalita squinted. She had heard of a mysterious person called the Oracle who watched over the hedgehogs. Could this be him? "Then yes," she replied. "I'm a member, and I'm supposed to meet the Sonic Underground tomorrow." 

"I thought so," said the figure, and reached into his cloak. He withdrew a folded piece of paper and handed it to Shalita. She opened it. Scribbled on it were the words and chords of a song. She looked up. "What is this?" 

"Something for the royal three," said the figure. "Tell them it is from the Songwriter. They'll understand." 

Definitely the Oracle person, the white hedgehog thought. "You can count on me," she said, tucking it into the pouch she wore on her leg. 

"Many thanks," said the figure. He rose to his feet and left the restaurant, leaving Shalita quite mystified. 

* * *

Sonic met Shalita three blocks from the hideout, in a crowded bus stop. Nobody looked twice as Sonic hailed the white hedgehog, who was unrobed, unarmed and uncomfortable. "You learn anything?" he muttered, leaning close. 

Shalita looked still more uncomfortable. "Not really, no. Nobody can breach security." 

Sonic frowned. "Nothing?" 

"Not exactly nothing ..." In a low voice Shalita told Sonic about the mysterious hooded person who had given her the note. She handed it to Sonic, who took it with a thumb and forefinger. He tucked it into his cloak without unfolding it. "Did he tell you his name?" 

"He said he was the Songwriter," said Shalita, glancing toward a trash bin down the street, where her gear was hidden. "He said you'd understand." 

Sonic looked bewildered. "The Songwriter? Oh, that's a big help. Some dude wrote a weird song for us, and tells us he wrote it, and expects us to figure out his name. What did he look like?" 

"About yay high," said Shalita, indicating the top of her head, "wearing a cloak and hood like yours, but purple, and he kind of had a funny accent." 

Sonic shook his head. "Doesn't ring a bell. Maybe we could--Oh, look sharp, SWATs!" The bus had arrived, and three hulking, purple gorilla-like robots stepped off into the crowd. The two hedgehogs whisked away down the street. 

* * *

"The Songwriter," said Manic. 

Sonic had led Shalita back to the hideout after retrieving her gear. According to the calender, their past selves were out roaming Mobitropolis, and it wouldn't be safe to venture outside until two o'clock PM. Sonia fixed Shalita with a glare of venomous hatred when the white hedgehog followed Sonic in, but she forgot it when Sonic pulled out the folded note. 

Manic took the note and spread it out on the table. Then from a pocket in his own robe he produced another paper, by this time crumpled and soiled from much handling. He spread it out beside the first, and all of them stared at them. 

The two notes were exactly the same. 

The scribbled handwriting, the ink, even the paper's texture were alike. 

"Where did that other paper come from?" asked Shalita. 

The triplets and Tails looked at each other. "This is gonna sound crazy," said Manic, gazing at the papers, "but we're from the future." 

Shalita stared. "The future? Like, how far?" 

"A week," said Sonic, grinning. "We came back to do last week over again. Wimpy, eh?" 

"I don't see why we should tell her anything," said Sonia, glaring at Shalita and refusing to address her directly. "I doubt her tiny mind could grasp it, and if it could, her brain would explode." 

Shalita's eyes went cold and she grabbed her sword hilt, but Manic held up a weary hand. "Cool it, girls, we don't need a catfight." 

"Yeah," added Sonic. "And it doesn't matter who the Songwriter is. What matters is that we stop the Death Egg. But we still don't know anything about it." 

"What do you need to know?" asked Silver Sonic. 

Everyone looked at him in surprise. 

"I thought you said the frequencies were wrong," said Tails, who had been hiding from Shalita in the background. 

"They are for me," said Silver, sounding oddly smug, "but for Mecha bot 2 they are not." 

"Give us the launch date," said Manic. 

"Monday at ten fifty-seven AM," Silver replied. 

"How can we destroy it?" added Sonic. 

Silver was silent for a moment, then said, "Please rephrase that to exclude the word 'destroy'." 

"What is the weakest point?" Manic said. 

Silver Sonic was silent for a long time, then said, "The Death Egg has two weapons, E1 and E2. E1 is nicknamed the Robotizer Beam. The function of E2 is unknown at this time. However, it uses such an enormous amount of power that firing it shuts down the internal reactor." 

There was silence for a moment. "How do you know that?" asked Shalita. 

Silver Sonic fixed his orange eyes on her. "I ask Metal Sonic, and he relays the information." 

"Wasn't he going to come find us?" asked Manic. 

"He shall, presently," replied Silver. "He is still disoriented. He may wait all week to take any action." 

"Monday," said Manic, gazing at the ceiling. "Today's Friday. That gives us all weekend. The thing doesn't start firing until Wednesday, and we don't time travel until Thursday evening. But if the thing doesn't fire, we won't time travel." 

"That's right!" said Sonia, clapping a hand to her forehead. "We didn't warp until it was almost too late!" 

"Wait, wait," said Sonic. "If we cut it really close, we might make it." 

"You mean hitch a ride and blow the Death Egg right as it fires?" asked Manic sarcastically. "That won't work, either." 

"No, maybe just delay it," said Sonic, closing his eyes. "Man, this is heavy." 

They spent the morning beating their heads against the problem without a solution. That evening Sonic left to run a few laps around the city, and returned with a bag of chilidogs. "And I paid for them," he said with a grin at Manic. 

As they rolled out their blankets and sleeping bags for the night, Tails said, "I bet I know how it worked. Anybody who hears our music time travels, too. That's why Mecha bot two came. He could hear it through Silver." 

* * *

Saturday passed without event. Sonic disappeared near noon and returned hours later, having spied on his past self all day and finding it extremely funny. Manic departed to raid the underground hideout for various food items he didn't think his past self would miss. Sonia and Tails went out looking for the Queen, and Shalita left to check in with the resistance. Silver Sonic remained in the hideout with only his network link to Metal Sonic to amuse himself. 

A change had come over Metal Sonic during the past few hours. The learning matrix he carried was amazingly advanced, for he was developing much faster than Silver Sonic. Unfortunately, as his view of justice was skewed by Robotnik-worship, his development was taking him in a different direction. His fear of the unknown had stagnated into a brooding, sullen anger at the world around him. He began to curse Silver Sonic for dragging him into the past. Silver Sonic didn't like this and shut down his homing beacon. Metal Sonic didn't care. He was growing the nerve to venture out of hiding, and Saturday night, he did. 

Sunday morning, Shalita reappeared at the door and knocked. Tails let her in, although he stood behind the door, his tails tucked behind him. Manic was already up, but Sonia and Sonic were still asleep, piled on the floor. 

"I've got good news and bad news," said the white hedgehog, seating herself at the table across from Manic. 

"Good news first," said Manic as Tails crawled into his sleeping bad and lay listening. 

"Well," said Shalita, "yesterday one of our scouts found a way into the Death Egg. There are three mail chutes, one connecting to the other, through the three security levels. You can board the Death Egg that way, if you're quick." 

"Cool," said Manic, brightening with hope. "What's the bad news?" 

"A robot went on the rampage last night," said Shalita, gazing at the table. "One person is dead and seventeen are wounded. They said it hit them like a thunderbolt and had glowing red eyes." 

Manic gave Silver Sonic a sharp look. The robot looked away. "Silver, was it Mecha bot two?" 

"Affirmative," said Silver, hanging his head. "I could not dissuade him. He is looking for his master." 

"What? What did you say?" asked Sonic, sitting up and blinking. "Who killed seventeen people?" His voice awakened Sonia, who sat up, saw Shalita, and looked sour. 

Manic explained the latest developments as the two got up, donned their shoes, and ate pizza from the night before. 

"I could get into the Death Egg," said Sonic when Manic had finished. 

"I want to go, too!" said Tails, forgetting his fear of Shalita and jumping up and down. "After all, it launches tomorrow, so today's our last chance." 

"You're too small, kid," said Manic. "Sonic should go alone, you'd just slow him down." 

"I wouldn't," said Shalita, giving Sonic a dazzling smile. 

Sonic gave her a critical glance. "No, you can't spindash. And you're not fast enough." 

Shalita's smile faded, and Sonia gave her a smug smile behind Sonic's back. 

* * *

It was agreed that Sonic would board the Death Egg, and Sonia and Manic would continue trying to locate the Queen. On Wednesday, they would enter the sewer, which would place them out of harm's way if Sonic couldn't stop the Death Egg. 

But things did not go according to plan. 

The mail chutes were two feet wide, owing to the large packages that were sent to the heart of Launch Base. The first chute was located outside the electrified fences, where trucks unloaded their shipments. It was guarded by a single SWAT-bot. This SWAT-bot heard a noise to its left, stepped away to investigate, and missed the soft flap as the cover of the mail chute fell to. 

A ball of whirling spines shot down the length of the tube in the roaring darkness. The pipe's interior was smooth as glass, and invisible fans created the airflow that sucked Sonic along like a dust particle in a vacuum cleaner. A second later he popped through the cover on the far side and landed on his feet. He was in a vast room stacked with boxes, and robots moved to and fro, oblivious to his presence. The level 2 mail chute was at the far end of the room. Sonic darted to it, lifted the flap and bounded into the windy tunnel. The chute was longer and had several bends Sonic smashed into before emerging on the other side, breathless. This time he was in a lofty echoing warehouse, with crates stacked to the ceiling. There was a scream of engines somewhere outside. What looked like the same robots were rolling to and fro, stacking boxes. Sonic hunted among them for the level 3 mail chute, and located it in the floor, where three robots were dropping in boxes. Sonic pushed his way through and jumped in. 

It was a bumpy ride. There were boxes behind and before him. Some he smashed to pieces as he spun by, others jostled him from behind, and once he was squashed between two large boxes for several choking seconds. Then he was sucked upward through a long tube--he guessed he was ascending into the Death Egg--before he flipped through the flap at the end. 

He was in a massive cargo hold. The ceiling was low, but the hold stretched out to the right and left as far as he could see. More boxes were tumbling out of the chute, so the hedgehog dashed away, climbed a ladder, and found himself in another hold. He was in the belly of the monstrous Death Egg, which was much bigger than he had imagined. 

A few minutes after Sonic boarded the Death Egg, a young orange fox fell out of the chute and lay on the floor, gasping for breath. Stowing away in a mail chute wasn't as easy as it sounded. Tails lay there until a robot on treads rolled up and stared at him. He got up and limped away, wondering where Sonic had gone and hoping he wouldn't meet any SWAT-bots. 

A moment later, a box dropped out of the chute. At once it was slit open from the inside and a rumpled Shalita struggled out, a knife clenched in one hand. There were ways of smuggling oneself into a high security area other than allowing oneself to be blown through the chute. 

She moved out of sight of the chute and pulled out a scanner. Sonic couldn't have gone far ... 

There were so many harmless robots about that she had turned off that scanner channel. Thus the hedgehog had no idea of her danger until the nightstick cracked into the top of her skull. The scanner slid from her numbed fingers, and she slumped to the floor. 

Metal Sonic stepped over her unconscious body and picked up the scanner, swinging the lead-filled club with his other hand. His red eyes swept the dots on the screen, and he gave the nightstick a twirl. So, Sonic the Hedgehog and a civilian were on board. The next few days should prove interesting. After all, neither he nor they must be detected. He could not present himself to his master until he himself was yanked across time Thursday evening. He tightened his grip on the scanner, crunching its plastic casing in his steel fingers, then let the fragments fall. He grabbed one of Shalita's arms, dragged her into a corner, and with sadistic humor, pinioned her between two heavy boxes. As a finishing touch, he placed a small toolbox across the tops of the boxes on either side of her head. Satisfied with his work, he stalked away to capture the civilian. 

* * *

Manic and Sonia had left Tails and Silver Sonic in the hideout when they escorted their brother to the Launch Base. When they returned, worried and bickering, they found only Silver Sonic waiting for them. "Where's Tails?" asked Sonia. 

"Gone," said Silver Sonic. 

"Where did he go?" asked Manic. 

Silver Sonic turned his head in such a way he looked guilty. "He told me not to tell." 

Sonia and Manic exchanged a horrified glance. "He followed Sonic, didn't he?" said Sonia. 

Silver Sonic looked at her and jerked his head up and down. The two turned to the door at once, but Silver added, "Wait, masters. It's too late. He is already aboard the Death Egg." 

"Little brat," said Sonia vehemently. "What if he gets killed or captured? What if Sonic blows up the ship and doesn't know Tails was there?" 

"It's worse than that," said Silver, gazing at the floor. "Metal Sonic is there." 

"What?" cried Manic. "Is he still mad?" 

"Oh yes," said Silver. "He has just felled the dangerous girl, Shalita." 

Both hedgehogs blanched. 

"Killed her?" gasped Sonia, who, although she was jealous of Shalita, didn't wish her dead. 

"Stunned only," replied the robot. "I fail to understand his thought processes. He takes pleasure in inflicting pain. I do not understand it." 

"What can we do?" asked Manic, his eyes glinting behind his untidy mop of hair. 

"Nothing," said the robot, "although if anything happens, I will inform you." 

* * *

The hours crept by. The lonely hedgehogs sat with their robot, waiting for news. As the sun set, Silver announced that Tails had been taken prisoner. Sonia gave a moan and buried her face in her hands. "He is unhurt," Silver went on, "but Metal Sonic schemes to use him as bait for Sonic. I believe he questioned Tails before taking him." 

Manic began to pace back and forth. "We've gotta contact Sonic somehow before the Death Egg launches." 

Sonia watched him pace, a stricken look on her face. "Manic, nobody can help us. We can't even play the Time Song without Sonic's guitar. Shalita was our contact with the resistance. We can't even find Mom!" 

The two continued to press Silver Sonic for news, but he told them that Metal Sonic was offline for the night and no longer transmitting. Sonic had not been located. At last, late that night, Manic and Sonia sank into restless slumber in their blankets on the floor. 

* * *

Shalita came to her senses and believed she was tied up. But as her brain began to work again and the fireworks resolved to a throbbing pain in her bead, she realized she was wedged between two wooden crates. How had she got there? The last thing she remembered was climbing into a box and sealing it shut. Maybe there had been a shipping accident. She began to writhe and squirm, trying to slide the crates apart. The heavy boxes gave a little, and she struggled to a sitting position. She succeeded in drawing one knee up and shoving the boxes apart. Inches away, a small box struck the floor with a clatter--it had been where her head was. With a shudder at the nearness of the miss, the white hedgehog crawled out of the boxes and sat holding her head. She had a blinding headache and didn't know why. Maybe shipment had been rough. As she sat there, she noticed the shattered remains of something on the floor. She crawled to it and picked up what had once been an area scanner. Oh yeah, she had been using it--but what had happened to it? It looked like it had been run over by a steam roller. She remembered her danger and wondered if she had been attacked by a SWAT-bot. She checked her watch. It was eleven PM Sunday night. She had better find a place to hide until the Death Egg launched. 

Staggering a little, the white hedgehog moved off among the cargo, until the darkness swallowed her up. 

* * *

Dawn. Sonic was awakened by a thread of light under the door of the closet where he had taken refuge for the night. He sat up and reached for the doorknob. The corridor beyond was flooded with sunlight, and the hedgehog blinked and squinted before deciding the area was clear. He stepped out and walked down the hall, rubbing his eyes. 

So far the worst thing he had seen about the Death Egg was its monstrous size. It smelled like fresh carpet and new paint, and reminded him of wandering around a vast model home. At the moment, however, Sonic was only interested in finding food. Surely there was a kitchen in this place. Robotnik had to eat, and not all the crew he had seen running around were robots. 

It was his undoing. 

Sonic caught a whiff of coffee, followed his nose and found the kitchen. It smelled wonderful, and seemed deserted. He stuck his head in, looked around, and seeing no one, strode in and eyed the cabinets. 

"Sonic--" 

It was no more than an intake of breath. 

Sonic spun about and saw Tails at the far end of the room. The fox was standing ramrod straight with his head tilted backward, as if an invisible rope were about his neck. His eyes were enormous, and his breath came in short gasps. "Sonic," he gasped, "help--me--" At the same time one of his hands waved as if to shoo Sonic away. Sonic sensed something was wrong, but Tails was standing alone in the middle of the floor. He walked forward. "What's wrong, Tails?" 

The fox's body twisted against the pressure around his throat. "No--get back--" It was too late. The taser struck with such power Sonic was unconscious before he felt the jolt. He sprawled on the floor as Metal Sonic rippled into sight, his cloaking device offline. He did not remove his claws from their chokehold on Tails's windpipe, but tossed the taser on a nearby shelf, and grabbed Sonic's arm. Without a word he dragged both of them out, through the Death Egg, and to a hall lined with steel doors. One of these opened as they approached. He flung them inside, slammed the door, and departed. 

Tails helped himself to a coughing fit and several good deep breaths. Then he saw the slick cement floor and insulated walls. With horror he realized that it was not a prison cell at all--it was a walk-in freezer. At the moment the air was room temperature, but Tails had a feeling it would kick on soon. He knelt beside Sonic. 

"I'm sorry!" he wailed as he rolled the hedgehog over and saw his lifeless face, still frozen in a look of surprise. "He told me to call you! I tried to warn you--" Sonic's heart was still beating. Tails glared at the door and rubbed his bruised neck. "Metal Sonic, you're mean. If Silver Sonic were here, he'd kick your tail into next week!" 

It was an hour before Sonic regained consciousness. By that time, a low humming could be heard, and the air was cooling. Sonic sat up and groaned, rubbing his head. "Man, what happened? Tails? Where are we?" 

Tails was sitting with his back to the wall and his knees drawn to his chest. "We're in a freezer, Sonic. Metal Sonic threw us in here." He wasn't crying, but would given the slightest provocation. 

Sonic shook his head to clear the numbness behind his eyes and stood up. "A freezer?" he laughed. "They think a stupid freezer will hold me?" 

"What are you going to do?" asked Tails without moving. 

Sonic nodded at the door. "Break it down, of course." 

The freezer hallway echoed with the jarring thuds of a prisoner assaulting the door of his prison. The steel door rattled, but did not give in. After several minutes, the noise died away. 

Sonic examined the results of five minutes of spindashing. His spines had made mincemeat of the plastic insulation, which lay in chunks on the floor. Beyond it, however, the tempered steel door was unharmed. 

"We can't get out!" Tails wailed. 

Sonic bared his teeth. "Don't give up, kid. I've just gotten started." 

* * *

When Manic and Sonia awoke, the sun was shining through the windows of their hideout, and Silver Sonic was gone. Sonia sat up, looked around, and spotted the piece of paper lying on the floor beside her. In neat, precise print it said, "Sonic has been taken. I must go myself. Good luck on your venture." It was not signed, but there was no doubt Silver Sonic had written it. She shook her brother. "Manic, wake up! Silver left!" 

When Manic's sleepy brain had awakened enough to understand, he read the note himself. "Great!" he exclaimed, banging a fist on the floor. "Now everybody but us are on the Death Egg! What are we supposed to do? Prepare the welcome back party?" 

"If they get back," murmured Sonia. "Sonic was captured, too. Manic, we've got to find Mom! The Death Egg launches today, and we get the note day after tomorrow!" 

"I hope she gave you the song," said Manic, tying his shoes. "What if it was that Songwriter dude?" 

"No, I'm sure it was her," said Sonia, brushing her pink spines. "You think I don't know Mom's voice?" 

"All right, all right," said Manic, stretching. "We'll look for her again. Man, I need a shower." 

* * *

Shalita was worried. Her headache had not abated, and once in a while she had a dizzy spell. It frightened her, but she refused to wonder if her skull were fractured. After all, it wasn't bleeding, and it didn't hurt as bad as some wounds she had had. 

The white hedgehog had spent the night in the hold, curled between two stacks of boxes, her head pillowed on her sword sheath. At dawn she made her cautious way into the upper levels, the bright light making her head throb. There was no sign of Sonic, but the battlestation was alive with pre-launch work. 

At last she realized how futile it was to search the huge ship for one hedgehog. If she really wanted to help Sonic, she should find out where E2 was, and what it did. That way, when he waltzed in, she would be ready with the answers. It was a rosy thought, and she set off at once for the upper levels. 

Fortunately, Metal Sonic was a floor below her and headed in the opposite direction. He was talking to Silver Sonic over the network. "Silver, I do not recommend you stay long. Once the ship launches, you will be marooned here." 

"Negative," replied Silver's voice. "I will not leave until my mission objectives are completed. Where are Sonic and Tails located?" 

Metal Sonic gave a nasty laugh he had been practicing. It sounded like a stuttering digital screech. "That, my friend, is none of your business. Let me assure you that they will be dead by the time the week is finished." 

"What have you done with them?" 

"Really, Mecha bot one," Metal Sonic continued, ignoring the question, "you should not have chosen them as masters. They neglected to even give you a battery." 

"I do not need one," growled Silver. 

"The gutless wonder," Metal Sonic sneered. "All robots need a battery. You think you are running on air? Let me tell you this, Silver. You are powered by the electrical field generated by the Death Egg. I could run on it as well, were I not equipped with a proper power source. When this ship's reactor shuts down, you will, as well." 

"What? Please repeat last thread. 'When' this ship's reactor ...?" 

"I was simple when I came online, but I was no fool," purred Metal Sonic, leaning against the wall. "Minutes before I was yanked backward in time, I heard noise in the upper levels. I activated the security camera and saw Priority Hedgehog covered in the red liquid which fills an organic body. There was another robot there, which I believe was myself, who had inflicted such damage upon him. But the hedgehog was not yet dead, for he fired E2 as I watched, which automatically shuts down the reactor. Then I was pulled out of time. It has taken me days to decided what it was I had seen. But, you see, you cannot win. I have foreseen my victory in the death of Sonic the Hedgehog." 

* * *

Sonic slumped against the wall, panting, his medallion clutched in one hand. The freezer door had been stripped of its insulation, and the steel beyond was scratched and burned from Sonic's assault with both his spines and the laser in his guitar. But neither were strong enough to pierce the metal. 

The walls were perspiring in the cold now, and the air smelled of coolant. Tails was pacing, trying to keep warm, although would grow much, much colder. "Stupid door," Sonic muttered, staring at it as if he could bore a hole in it with his eyes. "It must be thicker than I thought." 

"Sonic, what happens when it gets really cold?" asked Tails. 

Sonic shrugged. "I don't know. We'll just keep moving. I wish I had eaten something." 

But Tails's thoughts had moved ahead into days without number, during which they would freeze to death. No, they had to get out somehow. 

Nothing was more dismal than sitting in the dim freezer, watching their breath vaporize on the air and waiting for something to happen. Sonic got up and began to pace, the hum of the motor wearing on his nerves. "Can't you do something, Tails? I thought Kitsunes were supposed to have all sorts of weird powers." 

"Like what?" asked Tails. "Use the Force?" He waved a gloved hand at the door. "Begone, foul portal!" 

Nothing happened. 

"I could have done that," said Sonic sarcastically. "Can't you, like, blow it down with your tails?" 

"They don't work that way," said Tails, standing up. He spun his tails at the door, but all that happened was that his hindquarters lifted off the floor. "Sorry, Sonic. I can fly. That's all I'm good for." 

Time passed and it grew colder. After what seemed like years, there came a new sound--a vibrating rumble. "Takeoff," commented Sonic. 

* * *

The Death Egg lifted skyward on three massive rockets. Support towers swung away, robots and workers watched, and ground support radioed instructions as the battlestation rose skyward. Everything proceeded according to plan, and the ship swept aloft. At twenty thousand feet it levelled out. For the next eight hours, the engines would break themselves in, and the ship's inventor would see if anything went wrong. If all went well, Wednesday evening, the robotizer beam would fire. 

* * *

The day passed. Metal Sonic stalked the halls of the Death Egg, Silver Sonic hunted for his missing masters, Sonic and Tails bickered in the freezer, Shalita looked for weapons information, and Sonia and Manic searched for their mother. 

Unfortunately for the Sonic Underground, Queen Aleena was notorious for her hiding skills. They could find no trace of her, and none of the resistance knew where she was. 

"She's lying low, all right," said Manic, walking with his head down and fingering his medallion under his cloak. "We've got to get the time song to your past self somehow." 

Sonia's head was up, eyes fixed on the distant milky sphere in the sky. "We're running out of time, Manic." 

"Duh." Manic kicked a paper cup off the sidewalk. "We've lost another day. We've got to come up with something quick." 

They crossed a vacant lot, navigated several allies and arrived at their hideout. As they walked up, they saw a note tacked to the door. "What's that?" asked Manic as Sonia pulled it free. 

Her eyes widened. "It's from Him! Listen. 'Your mother did not give you the Song. Signed, the Songwriter.'" 

Manic grabbed the note and stared at it. "Mom didn't give--? Then who did? Are you sure it was a girl?" 

"Positive," Sonia snapped. "She had a definite female voice. It wasn't that Songwriter guy, whoever he is." 

Manic looked around, as if he expected to see the stranger looking over their shoulders. "This is definitely getting weird. Let's go in." 

They stepped into the dimness of the shack's interior, half expecting Someone to be waiting for them. To their relief it was empty. 

Suddenly Sonia made a sound and sank onto an overturned crate. Manic eyed her. "Are you okay?" 

Sonia stared straight ahead. "Mom didn't give me the note. I did." 

"What?" 

Still staring, Sonia fingered the hem of her black cloak. "I was wearing this. I lowered by voice ... does this make sense?" 

Manic squinted. "Kind of. This is maddening! What time was it?" 

"Early, about six. And I'd like to know who the Songwriter is." 

Manic shook his head. "We may never know, Sonia." 

* * *

Night fell, and arctic chill had come to the freezer. Sonic and Tails huddled together for warmth, pieces of insulation stacked around them. The floor and walls were covered in a thin layer of ice, and the cold bit through their fur. In spite of this, the two dozed from time to time. 

Tails sank into a dream that he was rocking on a warm sea. It was peaceful and quiet, and a seagull flew over. It reminded him of his vacation in the Emerald Coast, although he had hardly ever had time for recreation while there. "I could get used to this," he thought. Suddenly clouds smoked across the sky, and lightning forked down. It was no longer warm. He was in a bare, rocky desert with no protection from the storm. Sonic was there, yelling to him across a vast distance. "Use the lightning!" The webs of electricity snaked across the sky and struck the ground nearby. "It'll get me!" Tails cried in terror. He couldn't move--all he could do was wait for the next flash. Thunder roller over him, shaking his bones. "Use the lightning!" Sonic yelled again. "It's our only chance!" Icy rain gushed from the heavens, and the lightning poised overhead, ready to strike. 

Tails's eyelids snapped open. "Tails, wake up," Sonic was saying. "We need to walk around." 

The fox stumbled to his feet, his limbs stiff with cold. The two walked back and forth through the chill, and Tails recounted his dream. Sonic didn't think much of it. "Scared of storms, huh?" 

Sonic sat down again, but Tails continued to pace, teeth chattering. Coming so suddenly from a dream had left him with a feeling of unreality. Maybe Sonic was right and there was something else he could do. He began to spin his tails close together, the fur of each tail brushing the other. Maybe he could build up a static charge, like scuffing his feet on a shag carpet. It took concentration, and the fox stood still, tails moving faster and faster. 

Sonic watched his sidekick, shivering and feeling ill tempered. What did Tails think he was going to do? He clenched his teeth to keep them from chattering and folded his arms. He wondered what hypothermia felt like and how you knew when you had it. Then he glanced at Tails's spinning tails. Had he seen a flash? There it was again--sparks between the tails. Electric blue sparks. A second later a bolt of electricity rippled over the spinning tails, and all the fur on Tails's body stood erect. Sonic sat up straight and stared, mouth hanging open. Tails was staring at the door, brows furrowed in concentration. He didn't seem to have noticed the static charge he had built. 

"Tails," Sonic began, but broke off as the fox stepped forward and touched a finger to the steel door. 

There was a loud snap. Tails shrieked, and the door quivered in its frame. The fox looked around at Sonic, his fingertip smoking. "Great Scott," he said. 

"I think you're going to need a bigger charge," Sonic suggested, standing up. "I never saw anybody do that." 

Tails laughed weakly. "Neither did I." 

* * *

It took them the rest of the night to break the freezer door down. Tails's charges grew stronger with each try, and the bolt that knocked the door from its fastenings was so powerful it leaped from the fox and crackled over Sonic's spines. The hedgehog was none too happy about this. 

It was a relief to step into the comparative warmth of the Death Egg's hallways, even if they knew they must deal with the dangers it contained. It was an hour before sunrise, and the battlestation was dark and quiet. Sonic and Tails returned to the kitchen, their hunger greater than their fear of discovery, and made a quiet meal of bread, raw hotdogs and a jar of hot sauce, with water gulped from the tap. Tails found that he received a shock every time he touched a metal surface. "I wonder," he whispered to Sonic. "Could I do that because of my tails, or because I'm a Kitsune?" 

"Both, I bet," Sonic whispered back. "What time is it?" 

Tails checked his watch. "Six ten. Where's the weapon stuff?" 

"Higher, I think," said Sonic. "We've got about forty-two hours, right?" 

"Something like that. We'd better go before Metal Sonic shows up." 

The two left the kitchen and slipped like shadows down the hall. 

* * *

Shalita opened her eyes and blinked. A ray of sunlight lay across her face, shining through one of the blocks of glass that composed the upper section of E2. The sky beyond was blue and cloudless. She sat up and shut her eyes against the throbbing in her temples. As it subsided, she looked up at the glass half-circle that looked out on the world. It was fifty feet above the right 'eye' in the face of the Death Egg. She had explored the area the night before. The machinery behind the eye was riddled with platforms at different levels, accessed by ladders. She had nearly lost herself in their maze. 

But she didn't know what the vast halls of equipment did, or how to harm them. For the first time she thought of Manic; he might have been able to make sense of E2. At any rate, she was here, and had better get busy or she would be of no use whatsoever when Sonic arrived. 

* * *

Silver Sonic saw Sonic and Tails on his radar, but he made no move to join them. He had been processing the problem before them with every ounce of computing power he had. Metal Sonic, in his boasting, had let slip a vital clue. The Death Egg was not shut down until Thursday evening. Yet, their plans were to destroy it on Wednesday. Between those dates were twenty-four hours of earthquakes. Something happened--but what? 

Silver ignored Metal Sonic's taunts as the hours passed, and kept secret the information that Sonic and Tails were free. And, as the day's end approached, the robot found a solution to the problem. 

Tuesday ended as Sonic and Tails arrived, tired and bewildered, in the machinery in the bowels of E2, the mystery weapon. 

* * *

Wednesday morning. Sonia stood at the end of her home alley, her black hood pulled far over her face, palms sweating, the time song the Songwriter had given them tucked in her inner pocket. Any minute now and the manhole cover would slide open, and her past self would appear. Any minute ... 

With a ring of metal on asphalt, the manhole cover slid aside. Sonia saw her own pink head emerge, and her past self climb into view. "I should have brushed my hair," she thought in disgust. 

She waited until her past self caught sight of the Death Egg, then moved forward, holding her cloak around her. Past-Sonia saw her and froze in surprise. "Who are you?" 

"I thought I was Mom," thought future-Sonia. Aloud she said, "Hello, take this." She held out the paper, and her past self took it and unfolded it. "What is it?" 

"It's a song," said Sonia, careful to keep her voice low. "Learn to play it." 

Her past self looked up and opened her mouth, but future-Sonia held up a hand. "You must be underground by seven o'clock tonight. Stay underground until seven tomorrow night. Don't come up under any circumstances. 

Past-Sonia looked confused. "Why?" 

Future-Sonia walked away without answering, leaving her past self with the song and the instructions. She had done it. 

Manic met her at the corner. "Did you do it? Did it work?" 

Sonia flipped back her hood and smiled. She felt shaken. "Yeah. Everything was just like I remember." She looked at the distant Death Egg. "Now if only Sonic and Tails can pull off their end of the bargain ..." 

* * *

Metal Sonic slipped into the room where his past self lay on the table and looked around for video cameras. As far as he could see, there were none. He stalked to the table and looked down at himself, fully programmed, yet sleeping, lacking only a small power surge to send him to life. 

Metal Sonic extended a claw and touched his past self's face. Here was the only being he had ever felt tender toward ... the only being he had ever cared for ... himself. 

He paced across the room to the control panel on the wall, reached for the power lever, then hesitated. What if he hadn't ...? No. He was certain of it. He yanked the lever down. The lights on the panel blazed to life, and on the table, Metal Sonic's red eyes flickered on. 

* * *

"Log off the network," said Metal Sonic to Silver. "Before my past self logs on." He and Silver logged off, severing their communications. 

* * *

"How's it look now?" hollered Tails. He was crouched on the slender arm of the laser crystal supports, and towering above him was the polished crystal lens itself. Twenty feet above, Sonic leaned over the railing. "Still too low. Give it another six inches." 

Tails turned and pushed the lens. It turned silently on well-greased bearings. Sonic peered through the eyepiece. "No, still too low. Higher!" 

Shalita was standing beside him, pretending the shouting didn't hurt her head. She had discovered both the location of the lens and the targeting mechanism. 

Tails moved the lens again, catching the morning sun. Sonic yelped and jerked his head away from the scope, temporarily blind. "I think that's perfect," he called, rubbing his eye. 

The fox flew up and landed beside Sonic. Shalita smiled at him. She had forgiven him for being a Kitsune; after all, Tails had a charm all his own, and he might wind up getting killed. "I wish we knew what it did," he said, looking at the pipes, wires and tanks about them. 

"Maybe it's another robotizer beam," said Sonic. "Shal, did you find out how to turn it on?" 

She nodded. "There's a control room up in the top. I'll show you." She stumbled as she turned and gripped the railing. 

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Sonic, steadying her. 

She smiled through clenched teeth. "I hit my head and I've been kind of dizzy." 

Sonic looked at Tails, whose eyes reflected his concern. "Doesn't that mean you cracked your skull or something?" 

Shalita shook her head. "It doesn't mean anything. C'mon, the ladder's this way." 

The control room was the only walled structure in the maze of walkways, and contained the set of over-complex controls Robotnik loved. Shalita showed them a set of parachutes in a cabinet nearby, then leaned against the wall, spent, as Sonic and Tails tried to make sense of the controls. 

"I don't dare touch anything," said Tails, folding his hands nervously. "What if we can't turn it off?" 

"That'd be the pits," said Sonic, also eyeing the buttons and knobs. "You'd think we were flying a spaceship instead of firing a gun. At least we can bail out if it decides to blow up." He pointed to the parachute cabinet. 

They explored the rest of the walkways, Sonic keeping an eye out for a medical kit that could help Shalita. There were none. 

Time ticked by. Noon passed and seven PM marched closer. Sonic and Tails grew edgy and jumped at every sound. Shalita kept watch, partly so she could sit still and rest her head. At quarter til seven, she called, "Here comes your robot." 

Sonic and Tails welcomed Silver Sonic with open arms. He navigated the ladder with studied precision and joined them in the control room. He held up a hand to quiet the excited questions and said, "There is little time. Let me use the control panel, so we do not compound the disaster we are already in." Silver moved to the control panel and worked, pausing now and then as if listening. In the distance a soft hum began, and a gentle vibration shook the floor. "Deception is a powerful thing," said Silver, stepping away from the panel. "We must deceive our past selves if we wish to succeed. Please excuse me." The gray robot retreated to the wall, and his orange eyes flickered off. 

Sonic looked at Tails. "What?" 

Then E1 fired. 

* * *

"Did I say 'Mobitropolis'?" Robotnik laughed to the past version of Metal Sonic. "You are witnessing the dawn of Robotropolis!" He punched the fire button. E1 fired, but not in the direction Robotnik had wanted. Instead of down, it fired at an angle, striking Launch Base. Robotnik's eyes widened, and his smile vanished. "What's this? What happened to the firing trajectory?" He looked at Metal Sonic, who gazed back at him. The doctor punched at the control panel and ended the beam's firing. He readjusted the trajectory and fired again. Again Launch Base was hit. 

High atop the Death Egg, Silver Sonic the Hacker reset Robotnik's settings every time the doctor adjusted them. Robotnik did not give up until seven o'clock the next evening, when he finally admitted that the lens must be out of alignment. To fix it he would have to bring up the necessary repair drones. 

In the meantime, this firing had not gone unnoticed by the inhabitants of the city. Everyone fled for emergency bunkers and basements, leaving only the robots who were moving about on business. Silver Sonic trusted that the imaginations of the Sonic Underground would do the rest. 

* * *

Silver Sonic's eyes lit up. "Success," he droned, looking at the pale faces of Sonic, Tails and Shalita. "There is only an hour left until we time warp. We cannot fire E2 until then." 

"Why not?" asked Tails. "It's been a whole day, and I'm starved. Let's fire it now and run for it." 

"Because," said Silver Sonic, "someone saw us fire it." 

The hedgehogs and fox stared at him. "Who?" they asked in unison. 

"Metal Sonic," said Silver. "And he is coming." 

Sonic dashed to the ladder. He could hear clanking footsteps in the distance, but the platforms hid the robot from sight. "I'll stop him," Sonic said, and descended the ladder. 

"No," said Silver. He turned to Tails. "Assist him. Metal Sonic will kill him." 

Tails gave him one horrified look and darted after his hero. 

* * *

Metal Sonic rounded a corner and came face to face with Sonic. He stopped, and so did his enemy. Sonic grinned. "I finally get to see you. Man, you're ugly." Metal Sonic said nothing, but his digital eyes glittered. One hand doubled into a fist. 

A split second later Sonic smashed to the steel walkway, head spinning from the blow. He was up at once, facing the robot, who was stalking toward him, every motion as deliberate as a hunting cat's. "That's the way you want to play, eh?" Sonic sneered. The hedgehog threw himself into a ball of whirling spines and shot at the robot. To his surprise, he encountered thin air and screeched to a halt. How could Metal Sonic move so fast? The robot was now on the far side of the platform, standing still, hands at his sides. 

Sonic spindashed again, and again he missed. Metal Sonic was simply not there. Panting, Sonic saw the robot was now at the other end of the platform. "Don't you talk?" asked Sonic, walking toward him. If he was closer when he spindashed, nothing could avoid him. Metal Sonic lowered his head a fraction and said nothing. 

The next spindash was disastrous. Metal Sonic again sidestepped like lightning, and Sonic shot off the edge of the platform. Before he had begun to fall, the robot was in pursuit, claws outstretched. Sonic struck the platform ten feet below with a clang. Before he could decide whether or not he was hurt, steel hands clamped around his ankles. With the strength of a machine, Metal Sonic swung his enemy into the side of the ladder. There was an echoing bong, and Sonic slumped to the ground, stunned. Metal Sonic released his ankles, carefully took a handful of the spines on the back of Sonic's head, and slammed his face into the floor. 

Sonic came up fighting. 

One of his frenzied spindashes struck home, and the two hit the floor. Metal Sonic made an angry hissing sound. Sonic grabbed the robot's cold arm--it felt like a pipe--and pitched the robot off the platform. It was silent for a full second, then there was the snarl of a jet engine, and the robot reappeared, hovering on a fiery blue jet. 

Sonic dodged the next attack, a hot fury gripping him. No robot could do that to him--but he had never seen a robot that could move so fast. He watched the robot fly, looking for a weakness. Metal Sonic overshot his prey by eight feet when he missed--that could be useful. But first Sonic would have to knock out that jet. 

He had never fought a Mecha bot before. His brief encounter with Silver Sonic had been more of a race. In Silver's case, he had known the robot was armed and to keep his distance. Metal Sonic, however, appeared to carry no weapons, being built for speed. Thus Sonic was not afraid to get close to the robot. 

Sonic had no experience with the cunning programmed into a Mecha bot. 

He tackled Metal Sonic in midair, knocking him to the floor. The robot's jet automatically shut off, and his eyes glittered up at his foe. "You're not so tough," said Sonic. 

Metal Sonic's hands clamped into either side of Sonic's head like the jaws of a vice. Sonic tried to pull away, but he couldn't break the robot's grip. The sharp-ended fingers curled inward and relaxed. Sonic pulled free, and the claws raked through either side of his face. Before he could jump aside, Metal Sonic kicked him in the stomach so hard Sonic flew across the platform and lay still, doubled up in pain. The robot jumped to his feet, walked to his foe, and kicked him in the face and stomach. Sonic gave a moaning cry, an animal noise of suffering. 

Tails and Shalita hit the robot from two different directions, one with flashing crystal sword, the other with a terrific static charge. Metal Sonic twisted aside, and the sword glanced off his shoulder-cover. Tails's attack, however, was harder to avoid. The electric pulse stunned him and sent him to the floor, eyes flickering on and off. 

Sonic climbed to his feet, bleeding from his nose, mouth and the cuts on the sides of his head. "Are you okay?" he companions asked. 

He nodded. "It takes more than that to kill me. Let me spindash the creep." They stood aside, and the ball of spines whirled at the motionless robot. 

At the last second Metal Sonic flung himself out of the way, but no one saw the laser he placed in the oncoming whirlwind. Sonic uncurled and fell to his hands and knees. The laser had struck his back, between his quills, which hid the damage. 

"Sonic!" Tails yelled, sensing the hedgehog was hurt, and dashed to his side. 

Sonic stood up, gasping. "I'm all right," he said, looking around for the robot. Metal Sonic was standing at the end of the platform, head down and arms at his sides, which was his pre-attack position. Sonic said to Tails, "Run." He jumped to his feet and bolted for the ladder. Tails darted in the opposite direction, wondering which of them the robot would follow. A roar of engines told him Sonic was still the target. 

Sonic arrived at the top of the ladder gasping in pain; the laser burn in his back was making his left arm seize up. He stumbled onto the platform, doubling up in pain. There was an approaching whoosh, and Metal Sonic appeared, having flown instead of climbing the ladder. Sonic looked at the robot, tasting blood in his mouth, and suddenly thought of E2. It had to have been an hour by now. He forced his cramping muscles to work as he dashed for the next ladder. Metal Sonic followed him at a leisurely pace, content to let his prey flee for the time being. After all, the platforms only ascended so high. 

The chase went on, higher and higher, Sonic fleeing on adrenaline alone, his breath ripping in and out of his mouth like sandpaper. He was losing blood and becoming lightheaded. How much higher was it? He had climbed fifty ladders--a hundred--his limbs were trembling, and there was a hole in his back. He was losing fuel. Systems were shutting down. Fight the controls, stay awake, keep moving. 

Then he was in the control room, facing the vast unlabeled control panel. He felt numb and helpless. Where was his brain in times like these? It must be curled up in a corner somewhere. He had better find it before he fired the weapon or something bad might happen. 

Metal Sonic landed on the balcony outside and switched off his jet. Engines smoking, he paced into the control room after Sonic. This was it. This was where he saw Sonic and himself. Ah, the sweet taste of victory. 

Sonic turned to face him and saw something Metal Sonic didn't. Poised just inside the doorway of the control room was Silver Sonic. Still as a statue, he was standing with his hands at his sides and head lowered, the claws in his fingertips extended to their full six inches. Metal Sonic walked past him, eyes fixed on Sonic. 

Claws slashed. A screech of metal, a digital voice yelling in surprise. Metal Sonic whirled to face Silver Sonic, his right arm now lying on the floor. As neither were logged onto the network, they communicated audibly, and Sonic listened in hazy amazement as Metal Sonic spoke. 

"I warned you to leave once, Mecha bot one. Are you such a fool as to disobey?" 

"You are not my master," said Silver Sonic. "Sonic is. I will defend him." 

"A pity," said the blue robot, lowering his head. "I must destroy you as well." 

"You may try," said Silver, his clawed hand twitching, "but your chances of success diminish with the loss of each of your limbs." 

"Your master will be dead before we complete our battle," said Metal Sonic. "His biological fluid is leaking onto the floor, and soon he will die. Perhaps I should hasten the process?" 

Sonic leaped aside as the blue robot flew at him, his one arm extended. "Silver, how do I fire E2?" he cried as Metal Sonic stopped and whirled. The ringing in his ears had become a fierce whistle, and spots were swimming before his eyes. From a great distance he heard Silver's reply--"Throw the largest of the switches! I have initiated the rest!" 

Sonic sprang to the control panel, misjudged and stumbled into it, pressing buttons with his elbows. He searched for the largest switch through the mist in his eyes and saw it, near the top. He reached for it-- 

Claws ripped into the top of his head, over his scalp and down into his quills, yanking him away from the control panel. He could not control the scream that burst from him, and with a corner of his mind marvelled that he could make such a sound. He lay on the floor, staring up at Metal Sonic's red eyes, lined with diodes and shimmering with triumph. "Mission complete," he droned. 

The face vanished in a spray of sparks. Sonic lay there, staring at the ceiling, detached from the situation. He found himself gazing at the ceiling tiles and wondering what poor sap had put them there. Wasn't he supposed to be doing something? Something about a switch? 

He dragged his leaden body to its feet. "Look how bloody he is," he thought as he looked down at himself. He had ceased to identify with the stained blue hedgehog in the control room. "He had better find that switch and pull it." He watched himself lean across the control panel, lift a damp glove to the switch, and pull. 

The lights went out, and Sonic fainted. The entire battle in the control room had taken less than five minutes. 

Tails and Shalita burst in, panting from climbing ladders, and found Silver Sonic kneeling over a crumpled figure on the floor. Metal Sonic lay nearby, lacking both arms and a leg, and glaring daggers at them. Silver looked up as they entered, his orange fly-eyes expressionless. "We must evacuate. E2 will fire, and then the ship will crash." 

"Tails, take Sonic," said Shalita. She opened a cabinet under the control panel and hauled out a parachute. "I'll be fine with this." She buckled it around herself as Tails grabbed Sonic's wrists and dragged him out of the control room. The white hedgehog looked at Silver Sonic, who looked forlorn. "Never mind me," he said. "I shall survive the crash. I will return afterward." 

* * *

The reactor of the Death Egg had transferred all its power to E2, then shut down. The tilted lens Sonic and Tails had modified was pointed straight up in the sky. 

Tails blew out the glass in the skylight above E2 with a static bolt, then hauled the limp Sonic out through the hole. He flew out and down, away from the doomed battlestation, and toward the city in the blue evening distance. 

Shalita opened an access door further down, below E2, and leaped out. Her parachute opened, and she floated on the calm, warm air toward the highway below. 

E2 fired. A mighty beam of white shot skyward in an endless line, vaporizing the very air, reaching through the atmosphere and into space in a fiery finger of destruction. The white beam turned blood red--red as the sun at sunset--then vanished in a cloud of vapor. Had that beam hit the ground, it would have destroyed all of Mobitropolis, for E2 was a Death Ray. 

The Death Egg crashed into Launch Base, its lower portions crumpling like an eggshell. It did not explode, as the reactor was offline, but a good many things under it did. Both 'eyes' of the ship were destroyed. 

No traces of Metal Sonic or Silver Sonic were ever found among the wreckage. 

* * *

Tails descended toward the highway, his nerve and stamina failing. Sonic hung from his grasp like a dead thing, head lolling to one side, blue spines stained a dull purple in many places. What if he were already dead? Tails had seen that amount of blood once--only once--and his parents had died. He had to find medical help for Sonic, but how? They were on the outskirts of the city. Shalita might help, but she was hurt, too. Oh, if only Silver Sonic had come ... 

Flashing lights. Tails looked down and gasped as two ambulances screeched to a halt on the highway below, sirens wailing. Paramedics jumped out and looked up at him, their faces pale in the twilight. 

He had scarcely landed before Sonic was snatched from his grasp, buckled onto a stretcher, and lifted into the back of the vehicle. The other ambulance roared away up the road toward Shalita, who was just landing under an orange cloud of nylon. 

Then both ambulances were gone, red taillights vanishing in the direction of the city lights. Tails stood bewildered on the road, his fur fanned in the vehicles' wake. Where had those cars come from? How was he going to get home? Was Sonic still alive? 

The fox hadn't recovered from his shock when yet another car pulled up. This, however, was a silver van decked out with additions to its body on all sides. A familiar green hedgehog was at the wheel. Grinning, Tails opened the door and bounded into the seat. The van was in motion before he closed the door. 

"You did it!" Sonia squealed, twisting around in the passenger's seat to look at Tails. "You all did it! We're back in the present!" 

Tails couldn't have cared less. "Will Sonic be okay?" he asked with a catch in his voice. 

"We don't know," said Manic through his teeth, accelerating to ninety miles an hour in pursuit of the ambulances. "We're in the present. There's no time loop to work through now." 

"Where did the ambulances come from?" the fox asked after a moment. After all, he had just been wondering about medical help, and the ambulances appeared out of thin air. 

"That's a funny story," said Manic. "See, when we went into the sewer when the Death Egg fired, it was really boring, you know?" 

"And cold," added Sonia. 

"So in a lull we looked out," Manic went on, "and there was this guy standing right next to the manhole, like he was keeping watch." 

"And he told us to meet you here!" burst in Sonia. "He said Sonic and Shalita would be hurt, and to call the hospital--" 

"As soon as our past selves warped," corrected Manic. "We didn't reenter the present until our past selves time warped, you see." 

"I see," said Tails, although he didn't. 

"I asked him who he was," said Sonia, "because he was wearing a hood and cloak just like ours. He said he was the Songwriter, and was one of the people who watched over us." 

"I thanked him for the song," said Manic, braking as the red lights of the rear ambulance came into view. "He said we were welcome, and that the virtue of the song would be gone as soon as we reached the present." 

"Then he said not to look for him, but he would return soon. And then he took out a flute--" 

"And played a few notes, and disappeared!" Manic concluded. 

"Weird," said Tails, who was too worried about Sonic to pay much attention to their story. He kept seeing Metal Sonic bashing Sonic into things, dodging all attacks, flying with his claws out-- 

They piled out of the van at the hospital and rushed inside. Nobody gave them more than a casual glance. They were escorted to the waiting room and left, wondering and worried, while Sonic was wheeled into intensive care. 

Hours passed, and the night deepened. A nurse came and told them that Shalita had had a catscan, and had a minor skull fracture. She was resting and wanted to see them. It turned out that she, too was frantic for news of Sonic. They promised to tell her the moment they heard anything, and resumed waiting. 

Near midnight the doctor came in, an orange collie with a white blaze down his nose. He looked tired. "Your brother is alive," he told them. "It's hard to say anything for sure, but I think he'll make it." He held up a hand to stop the questions. "I'm not going to ask you what happened to him. And I'm also not going to acknowledge you exist. An unknown hedgehog was treated here, understand?" 

They understood. He was covering for them. It was fortunate that not everyone was under Robotnik's thumb. 

* * *

It was two days before Sonic awoke, weak and pale, but alive. The first thing he said to the others when they came to see him was, "What did E2 do?" 

They told him about the spectacular Death Ray, and about their encounter with the Songwriter. Sonic lay in the bed, a mass of white bandages with bright eyes. His second question was a more practical one. "When can I go home?" 

The hospital held him for another two days, but like everything else Sonic did, his recovery was swift. Manic chauffeured him home in the van under cover of evening, and the group enjoyed their first hot meal in a week. Shalita was there as well, a bandage wound around her head, but looking healthy. She couldn't stay long, for she was due to check in with the resistance, but she departed with Sonic and Tails' gratitude. After all, if she hadn't played scout, they might not have succeeded. 

Sonic recounted his battle with Metal Sonic with a mixture of relish and discomfort, for the memory of the killer robot gave him the creeps. Then he had Manic and Sonia recount their story in the proper sequence. When everyone finished, Sonic looked around, counting heads. "Where's Silver?" 

Manic, Sonic and Tails hung their heads. "He didn't make it," said Tails. "He was still on the Death Egg when it crashed, and it fell right on the eyes." There was a moment of silence. Although Silver Sonic was only a collection of hardware, they had all grown to like him. "He--he said he would be back later," Tails said, his voice cracking. "We couldn't have brought him with us." 

Sonic gazed at the floor, feeling as if he had lost one of his siblings. 

Suddenly Manic grinned. "He was a robot, guys. It's not like he died. He'll be rebuilt." 

"By Robotnik," said Sonia ironically. "And he'll be reprogrammed and come back to kill us." 

"He'll remember," said Manic, the grin persisting. "A robot with a learning matrix can't have its mind reprogrammed. He'll remember." 

"Good," said Sonic "I'd rather this whole thing had a happy ending. But guys, there's one last thing. Who is the Songwriter?" 

* * *

"That's what they'll be asking," said the hooded figure. "I only told them enough to excite their curiosity. But they won't look for me--Manic and Sonia will see to that. You have good children, Aleena." 

The female hedgehog was wearing a robe like his, but her hood was pulled back, letting her soft spines hang free. In her face there was an echo of Sonia's. She shook her head. "I truly didn't understand how you were going to pull this one off, Jules. It was very dangerous, and we almost lost Sonic." 

The Songwriter sat down across the table from her and pulled off his hood. He was a blue hedgehog with Manic's untidy spines and Sonic's eyes. "That's why I gave them their medallions through the Oracle. The Time Song was only the first one I composed for them, you know." He reached into his cloak and pulled out a silver flute, which he played a few piping notes on. 

Queen Aleena rested her head on one elbow. "You haven't changed a bit." 

Jules put down the flute and grinned. "Where do you think Sonic gets it?" 

"Certainly not from his mother," said Aleena, smiling. "But what about their robot? Did you mean for him to be destroyed?" 

Jules shook his head. "It was either destroy both robots or neither. I believe there is a hope for Metal Sonic, despite his programming." 

"You mean you saved both of them?" 

"I didn't do a thing. Silver Sonic did. He made Metal Sonic activate his jet, and they flew away just before the crash. Silver will take Metal Sonic's battery and return to his masters the day after tomorrow." 

Aleena sighed and traced a pattern on the table's smooth top. "I wish I had your foresight. When will you tell them who you are?" 

"Not for a while," said Jules, studying his flute. "I want everyone to think I'm dead. It's easier that way, because Robotnik's not looking for me." He looked at his wife. "Like he is you." 

"Tell me this, Jules," she said, looking desperate. "Will we ever be restored to the throne?" 

He looked at her, appearing much like his sons. "I haven't looked that far. I can't bear to. Sometimes foresight is more curse than blessing." He glared at the flute in his hand. "But I know that somehow, Metal Sonic will be Robotnik's undoing." 

Aleena looked at him for a long moment, then reached out and took his hand. "And Tails?" 

Jules didn't answer for a moment, but his eyes had a faraway look. "Tails ... I don't know what role he will play, but it is good to have a Kitsune on our side. He and Sonic will save each other's lives many times. Don't ask any more questions, Aleena. The future is too uncertain for me to say more." 

The Songwriter walked out of the cave, leaving Aleena sitting at the table with fierce hope in her eyes. "I only asked about us," she murmured. "They will succeed. Whatever happens to us ... they will triumph."

The End 


End file.
